When You're Overdue on Rent, You Get Evicted
by division-ten
Summary: Sora has an entire apartment block of hearts inside his own- some not even hearts of their own. It's about time he kicked them out. Post DDD, not cannon compliant with KH3. Inspired by the fic Parasomnia.
1. Rent is Due

_**I preordered KH3 over three years ago. It's arriving next week.**_

 _ **Also, yes I know I have an Artemis Fowl and a Danganronpa fic in the works. This one is already just about done, and should only be 5-6 chapters in total, as Sora finally kicks out all the people that don't belong in his heart anymore. Once this is finished (possibly sooner) I'll be back on my other works, alternating between them. I didn't abandon them! I just wanted to actually finish something for once in a long while, so a miniseries was the ticket.**_

 _ **All I will say is I'm blind, and desperately seeking a beta reader for this if you're so inclined.**_

* * *

Sora watched Lea mumble something to himself in the mirror. He missed most of it, catching the tail end of a "thanks, a-hole".

"You know Master Yen Sid will have your mouth washed out if he catches that. **With soap** ," Sora chided.

"Yada yada here to train, keep up the light whatever," Lea mock intoned. "Look, I get it. But two things. A- I'm older than you by enough a margin and b- what does using or not using profanity matter?"

"We're supposed to be ambassadors to other worlds. Not make waves."

"Goody two-shoes," Lea muttered under his breath, mussing his own fiery mop of hair.

"Look, despite what everyone thinks I'm not totally naïve," Sora replied sighing.

"I know," Lea replied, turning to muss Sora's hair in turn. "You've been waging war against the darkness since you were like… freaking twelve. You didn't get a childhood. You lost how many years to a coma to just go back out and keep fighting? Damn, I certainly don't have that kind of courage."

"I keep my cursing behind a locked door in my room," Sora replied, shrugging Lea's arm off his hair and around his back without much thought.

"Forget how strong you are, kid," Lea muttered, shaking out his arm.

"I don't think I qualify as **kid** any more."

"When you're older than me, then I'll stop saying it." Lea's smile brightened.

"The only way for that to happen is time travel or…" Sora didn't finish his sentence, he just face palmed and sighed a little. "Riku may be the only Keyblade master here but I **do** still have a few years experience on you, come on, let's get your training started."

"Kairi?" Lea asked, following Sora out of Yen Sid's tower, the musty castle now a base of operations for the four of them as they prepped themselves for the upcoming battle with Xenahort and crew, overseen by Yen Sid himself.

"Magic today, and while I **can** teach her some, that's really Donald's thing. He got a week leave from Mickey's castle guard to come and give her a hand. Arrived this morning."

Lea nodded.

"Do you want to do that instead?" Sora asked.

"Nah, I think of the four of us I've got the best grip on magic anyway," Lea replied, crackling fire off his fingertips without even yelling the Firaga cant aloud. He whipped both his arms to his sides and the flames radiated off his arms from the elbows down. Sora side-dodged the heat and observed in awe as Lea casually walked down the final staircase, literally on fire like it was a normal Tuesday.

Sora briefly wondered how the young man's jeans or watch weren't ablaze.

* * *

Out in the training yard, Lea and Sora could hear Yen Sid and Riku sparring in the makeshift arena area on the far side of the bushes. Riku had been named a Master, sure, but that didn't mean he couldn't still practice. From the sounds of it, Yen Sid wasn't fighting so much as animating various objects to do his bidding.

He could hear Riku moaning about a ten foot toaster casting Firaga and Thundaga at him.

Sora gulped a little. "Lea, keyblade only today, thanks."

"That bites," Lea replied, flicking his arms and completely dismissing the fire. Sora, meanwhile, flicked his wrist, materializing Oathkeeper, relaxingly twirling it in his fingertips.

"Standard tap out mercy rules," Sora said. "You're inconsistent. I need to make sure you can call your key to you on command."

Lea flicked his own fingers, but his own blade wouldn't answer his beck and call.

"This **really** bites. A day out for nothing."

He flicked his fingers again, and a third time, then sighed and changed the shape of his hands.

He flicked his whole hand this time, both hands. And it wasn't his jet-black and red keyblade that materialized, but Axel's pair of chakram.

"Figures," Lea muttered, letting the weapons disappear back into the aether and flopping on the grass. " **I** can't summon a keyblade."

"You just did. Yesterday. This is what I mean about consistent." Sora flopped down next to Lea on the grass. "Let's just meditate. It doesn't do much for me, I can't remember the last time I reached out and my key wasn't there, but it helps Kairi when she's having trouble calling for hers."

"Appreciate the offer, kid, really. Don't think it's possible for me."

Sora shot up, panting and shaking his head wildly as if to douse a fog. "You haven't called me by name at all today," he said with a realization that meant he knew there was more to it than just that. He gulped, seemingly afraid of the accusation he was about to make. "So, where's Lea… Axel?"

Lea- no, Axel- sat up casually, propping himself up by an arm and using the free one to make a finger gun to his temple. "In here. I'm driving today. He wanted to take a nice, long, sleep, so, **wish granted.** "

Axel took a moment, almost blanched, and verbally backpedaled. "I mean he literally wanted a nap after yesterday's training. I didn't take over or kill him. Keyblade is his, not mine, so..." Axel stopped mid thought.

Sora doubled over in what looked like pain, before he let out a weird muffled noise followed by full on laughter.

"Jeez, careful, you scared me, kid. I can wake Lea if you want proof," Axel added, nervously putting a hand on Sora's shoulder.

"No, no, it's just… I've been telling mine for ages that they can come out if they want. Can't imagine what it's like to be cooped up with me with no body. **Lonely**. I figured I was the only one like this. I talked to Kairi about it, and since Namine wanted to return to her, she doesn't have two hearts in her. Just one weird overlapping set of memories."

"I spoke to her about it too," Axel replied softly. "Both of us did. Guess since we're a pair of literal hotheads I didn't exactly go quietly into the good night. So I'm still in here," Axel said, jabbing Lea's heart. "And you're right. It bites. A Nobody in a body of someone with a heart is kind of… disorienting. But I'll take it over the alternative."

"So the days Lea couldn't summon his Keyblade were… your days?"

Axel snorted. "Nah. He just still sucks. I usually just take an evening here and there. I don't want to screw with training. But yesterday wiped him. So rather than calling out sick, he bugged me."

Sora just nodded. "I wish they'd trust me more, I keep offering."

"You know, if you called Roxas by name, that would be a start," Axel admonished. "Or did you not have it memorized?" he added with a smirk, flopping back on the grass, effortlessly producing and dismissing his chakram.

"I'm using **they** because it's not just Roxas in here," Sora replied lightly, flopping alongside his former frenemy.

It was Axel's turn to shoot up. " **What**?" he asked loudly and flatly.

"Yeah, what?"

Both boys craned their heads far back to see Riku's face, upside down in view, peeking over the hedge.

* * *

Axel had never seen anyone as guilty looking in his life as Sora did over lunch. The four of them, Riku, Kairi, Sora, and Lea-cum-Axel sat at Yen Sid's dining table with the master magician himself at the head, their guest Donald at the other end, shifting in a booster seat, worriedly looking at Sora like a mother hen.

"So, Roxas is inside of you?" Yen Sid asked. It wasn't accusatory, but Sora definitely seemed to respond as such.

"And… a few others."

"A few others?" Donald cried out. "Just how many is a **few** others?"

"Total? Including me?"

Donald glared harder.

"Six. At least that I know of."

Axel did a spit take, but, oddly, nobody else seemed that surprised.

Sora looked around the table, judging reactions.

"So why is the only other person here who also deals with this regularly the only one surprised?" he finally asked.

"Because I know you're crazy," Donald replied simply. "And sometimes way too nice for your own good."

"You already talked with me," Kairi replied with a smile. "And, as I was at one point also Namine, I do know what happened. I just didn't know how many."

Riku shrugged. "I've already met three of them, when diving through your dreams," he supplied. "Having two more beyond that isn't that weird."

"I can tell apart Lea and Axel with a glance," Yen Sid said sharply, glaring at the redhead.

Axel was suddenly far more interested with his plate than meeting Lea's master's gaze.

"Since I've seen no evidence of any personality but you, I assumed you were like Kairi," Yen Sid continued. "The Nobody born from you returning and settling completely. But six means…?"

"Roxas and I make two. I also still have pieces of Kairi's and Riku's hearts. It's just echoes but…"

Yen Sid looked at Sora sternly. "That's not a good solution, long term. If you think you can handle it, we should have those extracted and returned to their rightful owners." He nodded at Kairi and Riku. "They are both Keyblade wielders themselves, so that should be easy. Is your old Heartless the fifth?"

Sora shook his head no. "My heartless was just a mindless shadow," he said, motioning with his hands the approximate size and shape. "I don't consider it a person to itself. The other two are whole people. A… manufactured person… named Xion, and a normal human named Ventus, well as normal as a Keyblade wielder can be, I guess."

Yen Sid dropped his fork.

" **That's** where his heart ended up," he said, actually wide eyed. Finally, something surprised the old man.

"You know him?" the table asked in almost unison.

"A former student. We thought he was lost to the darkness. But that was ten years ago! He's taken shelter with you all this time?"

Sora just nodded, and Yen Sid sighed.

"And none of them have gone crazy?" Yen Sid asked. "Isolation is a huge issue."

"I talk to them all as much as I can. But they can't talk to each other. I've been trying to get them to come out from time to time. It would be good for them," Sora admitted. "I can't imagine being cooped up inside someone else's heart like that so I try my hardest to make the situation easier."

"See? Too nice," Donald said, beak up smugly.

"You're absolutely okay with letting one of them take over for a while?" Axel quietly asked.

"Yes," Sora said without hesitation.

"I want you to sit down in a chair in the study when you're done here. Close your eyes, cover your ears. Try and poke Roxas up. And whatever you do, don't move or flinch- **at all**." Axel looked at Sora, seeing if he could continue. Sora nodded lightly, accepting the command.

"I can't speak to the others you've got but I can try and coax **him** out at least. I won't hurt you but I will **absolutely** try and scare him straight. Is that okay?"

Sora considered it for only a moment. "Yes."

Axel cracked his knuckles and got up from the table. "Kairi, can I steal you for a minute?"

* * *

Sora sat, shifting uneasily in the chair. Yen Sid, Riku, and Donald stood off to the side of the study where Sora was waiting for…whatever Axel or Lea or the both of them had planned.

He could feel his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

Inside his mind, he flitted though the personalities that sat with him. The annoyance of the piece of Riku and the strong gentleness of Kairi were the easiest to reach. They weren't whole, for one, but they were also the pieces of good friends, happy to feel him reaching out to them but content to just lay dormant within him. Xion was singing, gently. It's what she did to pass the time when her consciousness was aware. Ventus was quiet. He could sleep for months at a time inside Sora, but he was a plucky sort of presence Sora had with him for literally as long as he could remember. And then, at the very bottom, was Roxas.

There was no real form or function inside the heart, but Sora considered it in more physical terms if only to make it understandable to his own mind.

So here Sora was, banging on Roxas's "door", for lack of a better term, trying to wake him up.

Ever since Sora's mastery test, Roxas had holed himself away. Sora knew he was still there, and occasionally aware, but he wasn't responding. Did he even register that Axel didn't exist anymore- or more accurately existed like Roxas himself did, holed away inside the human he'd come from?

'Up,' Sora thought.

'No,' Roxas whined back like a kid who didn't want to go to school. It was the first time he'd nudged Roxas in… months maybe? Usually he'd just speak quietly aloud in the mirror, and whoever was conscious would 'talk' back. He never directly went inside his own heart to talk to one of its occupants unless they asked for it, and that was almost always Xion.

Even describing the situation in normal terms was tough, but it was the best analogy he could manage.

'Up,' Sora said, stronger. Sora wasn't a pushover, but he wasn't exactly the demanding type either.

Before the idea of Roxas's reply could filter, Sora felt a blast of hot flame licking the area around his body.

Sora didn't flinch. He trusted not only Lea with his life, but Axel too, lack of heart be damned.

Sora heard whirring, muffled under his covered ears back in the world outside. Axel's chakram sliced a bit of Sora's hair straight off. And still, he didn't flinch.

'That's… Axel,' Roxas's consciousness whispered. 'He… didn't he die saving you?'

'He lived protecting you,' Sora replied.

So Roxas didn't know that killing a person's heartless and Nobody revived the original person whole, good as new.

'He's going to kill us!'

'No,' Sora replied, barely registering the feeling of fire around him. Time moved differently within his heart, and this whole conversation was occurring before the sliced lock of hair had even reached the ground outside. 'He's going to kill **me**. Wouldn't lay a hand on you."

Roxas, in so many words Sora could use to describe the metaphysical nature of his mind, cracked open his door. He was scowling, in their collective mind's eye.

'Move over,' he demanded.

And suddenly, it was Sora who was locked in a room in his own heart.

* * *

Axel spun the chakram carefully, just under Sora's chin. Between Donald and Yen Sid, (and his own self if he really needed to break character) there were enough people proficient in Curaga, but he wanted to avoid dealing actual damage in the first place.

He put a foot up on the chair Sora was sitting in, rocking it backwards forcefully but not letting it topple.

"I said FIGHT ME," he bellowed.

Sora's eyes shot open, and he gripped the seat of the chair for balance, stunned. Reflexively, he flicked his fingers, calling his Keyblade.

It wasn't the Oathkeeper from earlier.

It wasn't Sora from earlier, either.

Roxas glared and held the Kingdom Key out aggressively, pointing at Axel's neck. He had Sora's face and form, yes, but his stance wasn't Sora's at all; Sora would have held the blade crosswise, defensively, until he determined if the other person was an actual threat.

Donald gasped, but was quickly shushed by Riku.

"Ax…el?" Roxas asked, voice shaky like he hadn't spoken aloud in ages.

Which was true.

Immediately, Axel, who was wearing his old Organization clothing and even had a pair of his signature indigo teardrop triangle marks on his face, softened. With a quick flick, the fire and chakram vanished, and Axel grinned huge.

"Mornin', sleepyhead," Axel said brightly, carefully tipping the chair back to balance on its legs correctly, shifting his torso so he wouldn't be bonked by Roxas's weapon as he was lowered.

Roxas was shocked, not even focused enough to dismiss his key, and merely let it clatter to the study floor.

"Axel," Roxas tried again, sounding out the word, stunned.

"In the flesh," Axel replied, offering Roxas a hand up. "Not **my** flesh, mind, but I'll take a loaner."

"You're… like… us?" Roxas asked, slowly, as he took an unsteady step forward, instantly caught by his friend. Axel guided him, one hand on waist and the other on a shoulder.

" **Easy** there. Sora's body knows how to walk, but **you** haven't in a while. Might want to dismiss your key before you trip over it. And yes. Like you," Axel added, as Riku and Kairi came around to support Roxas as he regained his balance.

Axel took off a black glove and licked the back of his palm, smearing the wet across a cheek. The indigo instantly smudged. "See? Just makeup. This is my human's body, just like you and yours."

"Got it memorized?" Roxas mocked.

Axel snorted. "I deserved that. Come on, let's catch up on the roof with some ice cream. All of us."

* * *

Donald kept looking uneasily at the face and body of Sora, that currently wasn't acting very Sora-like.

"What?" Roxas asked to Donald. "You want Sora back?"

"Well, eventually," Donald admitted, a bit ashamed. "But he wanted you to have some time outside so I'll respect that."

Roxas squinted. "I can barely understand you."

"I take it back," Donald said in a huff.

Kairi shifted and squatted between them. "Donald, cut him a little slack. He can barely walk."

Donald just huffed, but tentatively held out a hand. "Since we've never actually met, then," he said, mildly irritated. "I guess I should at least say 'pleased to meet you'."

"Though the 'please' part is under review?" Roxas asked, trying to crack a smile, gingerly taking the hand for a shake, before turning his head when he heard the clicking of boots.

Axel flopped on the rooftop with a box of ice-cream sandwiches.

"That was a seriously dirty trick," Roxas complained, snatching one and unwrapping it.

"Hey, means and ends," Axel replied, before flattening himself against the shingles. He took a few labored deep breaths before shooting back up.

"Ugh, ow, sorry."

Roxas looked at Axel, and the young man shrugged.

"He was exhausted. Sorry, Roxas. I'll make sure you two can catch up another day."

"You're the human he came from, then?" Roxas asked nervously, as Lea passed the box down to Kairi.

"Lea. Yeah."

Lea flicked his fingers, materializing a keyblade of his own, then dismissed it just as fast, before reaching out with that same hand to shake Roxas's. "Nice to finally meet you. Axel doesn't shut up about you. **Ever**."

Roxas snorted, and bit into his sandwich, accepting the hand with his free one. "You two just did that to force me to come back out again another day."

"At least one of you has critical thinking skills," Lea replied with a laugh, unwrapping his own bar. "But he really **was** tired."

* * *

Roxas glowered at the reflection in the mirror, then turned away.

"The voice is annoying enough," he muttered to Lea, who had been charged with helping Roxas that afternoon in lieu of his own training. "But I feel like I'm just… stealing, seeing his face in the mirror."

"He **did** offer," Lea replied. "Just, don't abuse his kindness and that's enough. It's my pact with Axel."

"What if Axel does something you don't want him to do?"

"That's his mistake to make," Lea replied. "And I trust him. His mind is in the right place. If it helps, here."

Lea unzipped his Organization coat and flung it on Roxas's shoulders. "A bit big, but Riku might have one or two he's willing to spare."

Roxas pulled the fabric tightly around his shoulders, then snuck a peek back to the mirror, sighing.

"How do I talk to Sora, anyway?" he finally settled on asking. "You and Axel seem to be able to, and Sora could bother me."

"Well, anything I say out loud, Axel hears too, if he's conscious, and vice versa. You experienced that too, right?" Roxas nodded. "But if you want to actually hold a conversation with him, dive back into his heart."

Roxas just looked confused, before hearing an inaudible voice.

'Heya,' it said. It had no form, but Roxas instantly recognized it as Sora.

"Hi…?" Roxas asked the air.

'Next time, do me a favor and don't leave in such a hurry. You locked me in,' the voice replied, gently. 'D-don't worry! It's my own heart, I can pick it… I think. I can summon my keyblade, so…'

"You **think**?" Roxas replied aloud. Lea just sat opposite him in the practice room, laughing behind a hand.

Roxas took a few pained breaths, and suddenly Sora was clutching at his heart.

"Fuck," Sora said under his breath. "I shoved Roxas back in."

"You're not in your own room," Lea said with a smile. "And what was that about soap?"

* * *

'Sorry,' Sora whispered at Roxas's 'door' in his heart. 'I didn't mean to kick you out.'

'I know.'

'Can I… come in?'

The door disappeared into a pool of light, and Sora stepped inside. When he blinked again- not his body, he was just lying on his bed for a spare half hour before dinner- but when his heart-of-hearts did, he was standing in a little bedroom, of deep orange wood. On closer inspection, the wood itself wasn't orange, but stained from the sunset outside the window.

'Wow,' was all he could articulate, peering out into Twilight Town. 'I have the memory of the entire city in here?'

'Nah, I did this,' Roxas replied. Sora turned and looked behind him. Where the glowing doorway had been, was now just a regular wooden door, Roxas leaning against it. 'Once I realized this space was mine, I started seeing how far I could take it. When you… **we** … killed Axel, I hid in here. I made a memory of him, and then realized if I could do that, I could probably build a city.'

'So that's what you've been doing when you weren't responsive?'

Roxas just nodded. 'Though I dismissed my memory-Axel. I'm good at architecture, but people aren't fun if you create them yourself.'

'I wonder…' Sora thought aloud, before a woman in a black organization coat materialized into view.

' **Please** don't make people,' Roxas pleaded. 'I know they're not real.'

'I didn't make her,' Sora replied. 'This is Xion, one of the other refugees in here,' he added, introducing her.

Xion blinked the stars from her eyes and shook her head. 'Wow.'

Roxas blushed a little.

'When you locked me inside earlier, it was just a white room of nothingness,' Sora continued. 'But since you have an actual space here, I might be able to link up everyone. If you wanted to talk with each other, at least. Looks like I can, so…'

Xion was still wide eyed, running to the window. 'This is… this is the whole city. All I was able to manage in my space was the clock tower.'

Roxas was stunned. 'You're from Twilight?' he asked, moving to the window to get a better look at her.

'Mhmm,' she replied.

Roxas got a little closer, and his mouth dropped.

'Xi….Xion. **You**. **You're Xion**!'

His memory rushed back to him and suddenly the two of them were hugging each other tightly, afraid to let go.

Roxas blinked out a few tears, and scanned the room for Sora to give his thanks, but the other boy had already long vacated the plane of his heart.

* * *

Sora sat down at his desk that night with scattered notebooks on magical conjuration, yanking at his hair. He needed at the very least to figure out two things, possibly three, maybe more.

Sora had become pretty proficient in a wide range of battle spells- Lea-slash-Axel were better at fire and healing, while Sora prided himself on being a competent all-rounder- but non-combat, particularly conjuration and alteration spells, were often left unlearned. No turning toasters into giant battle monstrosities like Yen Sid. And don't even get him started on alchemy. He couldn't brew his own potions if his life depended on it. Anything that involved precise, exacting measurements or death was far out of his element. Sora, after all, did almost everything by the **feel** of it.

Sora couldn't **feel** through a temporary means of changing his voice, though. Either he'd need a good, reliable, easy-to-cast illusion spell, or, more likely, some sort of potion for that.

One he could pre-mix and leave out for his tagalongs to use for themselves, if they wanted.

Sora rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb. He'd leave body modifications aside for now; Donald was probably the person to ask, anyway, given his track record. Absentmindedly, Sora ran his tongue over his canines; Donald had cursed Sora to turn into a vampire when in Halloween Town, one that stuck even if he weren't present, as the boy found out a week ago running a mission there. It wasn't unpleasant, just **odd** (mostly just a little awkwardness with folding his little wings and a craving for very rare steak) much like the other spells Sora had been the recipient of over the years- a merdolphin for water planets like Atlantica, and a straight up lion cub when on Pride Rock. Of all his transfigurations, **that** one took the most getting used to. Sure, he could run like the wind, but carrying his Keyblade between his teeth took some effort. Again, he didn't mind so much- and the rare meat thing still applied.

Sora mentally ticked off the other charms and curses and spells permanently coursing through him- and not all of them had to do with his travels. He vaguely remembered his seventh birthday Aero curse that still helped him now. It wasn't **indefinite** , but it did considerably lengthen the time he could be underwater without needing to breathe. Every resident on Destiny Islands got that curse as a kid, which made sense when you were never more than an hour's walk from the ocean.

He tapped on his to-do list with a pen, writing SEE DONALD under the various little things on temporary or conditional transfigurations.

Clothing would be a little easier. He didn't see his stowaways, not in so many words, but he knew what made them a little more at ease. Xion was easy enough- an Organization XIII coat. The spare Lea had tossed at Roxas earlier would just need to be magically resized.

Roxas could use it too, but Sora knew he flitted though his heart in more… casual clothing. At the very least he could probably go to Twilight Town and pick up some things that were more both Roxas's and Ventus's styles if he couldn't conjure them himself.

But really, he needed the excuse to work on more practical magic anyway.

He roughly sketched what he remembered, and got up. He couldn't cast this sort of thing wandless. Even the fairies who gave him his last set of traveling clothes relied on a little extra focus.

To be fair, his fairy vestments were charmed and helpfully cursed fifteen ways to Sunday, while he himself was just trying to make some jeans and sweatshirts.

Sora quietly plodded down to the requirement room, a floor above the study and below Yen Sid's own chambers. If it was unlocked, it was free to use. If it was locked, well, everyone here had a Keyblade anyway.

Sora swiped the pad of sticky notes and a black felt tip pen, looking around the room for the wand case. Most of them were on their peghooks, but an ice wand was missing, a sticky note with red text left behind.

YEAH THANKS FOR RATTING ME OUT. -AXEL

Sora laughed quietly. It made sense Axel would want to practice his weaker spells if he couldn't summon a keyblade like Lea. Now that it was public, Yen Sid would probably be putting him on his own training plan. It also meant Axel was up- or had come back out sometime earlier that evening.

Pink stickies where a tome on Aero and a bag of fairy dust had been stored. Kairi was out somewhere too, then, flying. Sora considered it a moment, and inhaled deeply, feeling a warmth surge as he let himself float for a moment before settling back on solid stone flooring. He still had it, but he reminded himself to practice or he might lose the ability all together. Peter Pan did warn him it got harder as an adult on fairy dust alone.

Sora didn't see any blue notes until he flicked up to the weapon wall. Riku had borrowed a shield.

Sora smiled lightly, opened the wand case, and tested a few of the conjuration wands in his hands.

The oak one snarled a little, and he put it back. Powerful, but temperamental as hell. The cherry one merely rolled away from his fingers if he reached for it.

He'd only attempted to use it to improve his cooking that **one** time, and now it wouldn't even let him apologize!

Sora frowned. Maybe borrowing a wand was a stupid idea.

Something gently tapped his shoulder, and Sora twirled. The magicked objects of the tower still unnerved Sora sometimes. Destiny Island had robots, but those ran on electricity and computers and even though he had a black thumb for tech himself, the way they worked at least made some sense. Magic just **was** sometimes, and sure, he grew up with it, but it was usually either a last resort, used for healing, or for showing off. The day to day comforts weren't provided by floating food trays like one in front of him, nudging. Sora lifted the lid, and a cup of steaming chocolate with star-shaped marshmallows and a dollop of quickly melting whipped cream stared back at him.

"Can you put it on the desk in my room?" Sora asked the serving tray that had brought him a gift he didn't realize he needed.

The platter floated off, accompanied by a broom sweeping the stone flooring.

Sora bit his lip and returned his attentions to the wand case, when he realized he wasn't alone in the room.

"Couldn't sleep?" Donald asked.

"It's only 9PM," Sora replied, sighing, being rejected by every wand in the conjuring box.

"Right, local time," Donald said. "It's 2AM back home."

Sora checked his phone. "6:30AM on Destiny," Sora replied.

"Sora?" Donald asked with surprise.

"You thought you were making small talk to Roxas?"

"Yes."

"I accidentally threw him back inside my heart, but he's okay."

Donald just watched him for a while, trying to coax a wand into not shocking him.

"They really don't like you, do they," Donald rasped out, with a half-laugh. "That's literally a first."

"I'm not really great with structured formal magic," Sora admitted.

"Oh really?" Donald asked with a literal ton of sarcasm. "I never would have known. So, why the sudden interest? Homework?"

Sora shook his head. "It's probably going to sound stupid- but…"

"A lot of things you say sound stupid."

"You didn't need to agree!"

"I said **sound** stupid, knucklehead. Not **were** stupid." Donald laughed. "I'd put it in at around ninety percent flying by the seat of your pants."

Sora glared at the case of wands and slammed the lid. Gently.

"When- not if, when- the other people in my heart borrow me, I want to make it a little more comfortable for them."

"Conditional transformation?" Donald asked, after he peered back to look at the case's label.

"That would be the goal," Sora admitted. "But I figured I could at least magick up some clothes. I'm a little too afraid to try anything even as simple as temporarily changing my hair color."

"You'd probably burn all of it off," Donald said, thrumming his fingers. "Heaven help me you're too nice. Fine," Donald added with a rasped huff. "And for the record, **I don't think it's stupid**."

* * *

Sora hung up the string of four paopu shaped stones- the five-pointed fruit shape his idea- over his mirror. One in yellow, one in blue, one in green, and the last white, all glowing softly. Sora knew how they worked- he'd spent a good almost five hours with Donald constructing them, or really, Donald doing the heavy lifting while Sora followed with interest and practiced conjuring up fabrics- draining three cups of hot chocolate and another two sodas to get him through it in one go. Donald had even given him one of his old paopu-tree wands, one that didn't immediately hate Sora's guts, with the warning that it was the only one he was getting. If Sora pissed this one off too, that was on him.

It felt a bit like childhood, and Destiny Islands, and he could swear he heard the ocean when he held it.

He promised the thing he'd do spells perfectly by the book.

At least until they got to know each other a little better. Then he'd experiment as much as the thing would tolerate.

* * *

Sora looked at the bulletin board before sliding into his seat at the table. Nobody had assignments that day.

Weird.

He yawned, passed the juice to Lea, and quietly cut his egg toast.

"So, what's with the lack of info, Master?" Lea asked, breaking the unease, looking back over his shoulder at the board, jabbing his knife at it.

"I want Riku and Kairi to take back their heart pieces from Sora today. They'll all need some time to recover after that. You and Donald can help with healing, if needed."

Donald, tired and jet lagged, just nodded at the opposite end of the table.

"Just understand, Master, you're ripping out two pieces from Sora at once. Having Axel in here is like having a bi-level house with a roommate. Taking him out isn't just kicking out someone for failing to pay rent. It's then going and ripping out that entire floor to spite them for having ever been there."

"I assumed as much, Lea, but those pieces of heart have bodies to return to."

"I didn't say don't do it, I'm just offering a word of warning," Lea replied. "Given that Sora still has more residents in that hostel of his heart, it might make more sense to ask one of them to be up, while he's inside, keeping the rest of the building from collapsing- metaphysically, if Riku and Kairi's pieces are holding up some of the others there's going to be some stability issues. Just a thought."

Sora jittered a bit at that.

"It would… break me?"

" **You** , no, it's **your** heart. But it might do damage to the other residents. It's just a theory. I've only got a split-level, mind you."

"I'll ask if Roxas wants to swap," Sora said quietly, as he swallowed a piece of egg white. "I can keep Xion and Ventus safe."

Riku and Kairi looked at Sora worriedly. "Both of us at once?" Kairi asked.

"Better to just rip off the bandage clean," Lea shrugged. "Makes more sense to me."

"I agree with Lea," Sora said, clattering his silverware louder than necessary. "If I'm going to do it, let me just get it over with."

"One hour, then?" Yen Sid asked the group. Everyone nodded.

* * *

Lea walked quietly back up to Sora's room with him, sitting on his bed at the corner.

Sora thrummed his fingers.

"Hey, don't be nervous, we're cheering for you," Lea said brightly.

Sora just looked past Lea at his open closet. Lea followed his gaze and noticed a few new things hanging up on the bar. "Hey! You shrunk my coat!" Lea whined.

"I can resize it," Sora replied, running to grab it before Lea took his wrist.

"I have two others. I gave that one to Roxas. Were you going to change for him?"

"Yeah… I mean, I was totally aware yesterday, and not at the same time, it was weird. I know he didn't like seeing me in the mirror."

"Were you locked up in a bright white room, with nothing? When Roxas took over, I mean."

"Same for you?" Sora asked, sitting down on the edge of his bed next to Lea. The redhead nodded.

"Only at first. But I realized I could redecorate pretty quickly. Soon, it wasn't a room, but a pretty nice house. And eventually, Axel and I built into each other's spaces. So, now when I'm asleep, like, in bed asleep, not letting him drive asleep, we can both talk freely, so long as we're not both mentally exhausted."

"Yeah, I realized I could link up Xion's and Roaxs's spaces for them. Don't know how to connect mine yet, and I haven't actually been able to get ahold of Ventus. They have to invite me in."

"You're going to have to get him up, and then move all of you to the biggest space. It'll be easier to protect them if parts of their spaces become unstable."

"That's Roxas's, unless Ventus's is bigger. I've never actually been inside. But it's kinda hard to top a whole city."

"A **what**."

"Roxas's space isn't a house. It's a pretty impressive recreation of Twilight Town."

Lea just rolled his eyes. "Of course it is. Look, just do what you need to, and get yourself, Xion, and Ventus in Roxas's heart-space. The clocktower is probably going to be the most stable place in the city. If it starts to collapse, that'll be the last place that falls."

"Xion said that was all she had in her space. What's up with the clock?"

Lea shrugged. "It's an Axel-Roxas-Xion thing. Funny. Axel only knew Roxas when you spoke yesterday, but at like eight last night he demanded my body and started researching like crazy. And he started… remembering. Stuff."

Sora just smiled. "Yeah… its complicated. I… I'm going to change and try to get Ventus out of his space, okay?"

"Do you want me back in here when Roxas is up to talk you through that?"

Sora shrugged. "Time works differently in there. I think it'll be faster to just do it on my own. But… I'm sure Roxas would appreciate the company."

"Axel's at least," Lea snorted. "He burned himself out last night. I'm not walking him unless I have to." Lea stood up, stretching his bony long limbs. "If Roxas wants me, I'm sure he'll call for me. Just have him in the study when you can."

Sora nodded, as Lea left the room, shutting his door.

Sora shucked off his normal clothes, reaching for the black coat. He knew it would fit, but the thing was also very form fitting.

Just the sweatshirt and black jeans, then. Sora changed into the clothes he'd made the night before, foling up his own and leaving them on a chair, before reaching up, touching the yellow glowing stone affixed to his mirror.

His face didn't change, but his hair yellowed out to a dirty, musty blonde, and he felt his throat hitch for a moment.

He didn't try out his voice, he just flopped on his bed, closed his eyes, and reached out for Roxas to wake up.

* * *

Roxas wasn't responding, but Sora realized his door wasn't locked or barred. He stepped inside the light, blinking as he readjusted to Roxas's bedroom, still bathed in twilight. His bed was left unmade, and a black Organization coat was left haphazardly atop the sheets.

Nobody home. Lea had said something about the clocktower, though, hadn't he? Sora pulled up the map of the shopping districts from his memory as he exited Roxas's house, before realizing that he just needed to look up. The clocktower was one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Sure enough, when he got closer, he could hear laughter, above him. Sora thought of sky, and floated up towards a high ledge. Roxas and Xion shared a mound of ice cream and taco wrappers between them, Xion, in a black tank top and dress pants, and Roxas in his favorite hoodie and black jeans with the silver overlay.

It was **her** coat on his bed, then.

Xion offered Sora an ice cream. 'Don't worry, it's not like it'll melt. Unless you want it to.'

'Never liked sea salt flavor,' Sora admitted. Xion flipped the bar in her fingers and it turned into an ice cream sandwich. Sora took it.

'It's still sea salt! I wanted…' Sora stopped, and looked down at the bar again. It had been blue a second before, but was now a rich brown. 'Coffee.'

'Bleh,' both Roxas and Xion voiced in unison.

'Your loss,' Sora replied. 'To be fair, I only started liking it recently. Something about liking more bitter foods with age,' he added, jokingly jabbing Xion in the ribs. 'Xion, do you need anything from your space? I can take you back.'

'You're sitting on it,' she replied. 'Roxas and I merged our stuff. The clocktower is mine, and his too, but my tower was way more detailed.' She paused to stick her tongue out at Roxas like a kid. '…And it joined up with Roxas's city.'

'Makes my job easier then,' Sora replied finishing the sandwich. Roxas passed him a wet wipe.

'I heard. Most of it, I think,' Roxas said. 'You're evicting Kairi and Riku?'

Sora nodded. 'They're alive. They deserve their hearts whole. Erm,' Sora added an embarrassed noise, looking at Roxas and Xion.

'It's not like we can do anything about that,' Roxas finally articulated. 'I'll head on out. But if anything happens to Xion, I'll beat the snot out of you and then some.'

'Don't do anything until I get Ventus in here,' Sora admonished.

'I did say I heard,' Roxas said, and then he was gone, and Sora's eyes fluttered back open in the world outside.

"Also," Roxas said aloud, before doing a double take, hearing a voice that wasn't **exactly** his, but came frighteningly close. "Um. Okay. Whoa."

'Yeah?' Sora thought up to Roxas.

"You didn't have to do this." Roxas preened for a moment in the mirror, which was an eternity and then some for Sora and Xion, who had left Roxas's piece of heart to go wake Ventus.

'No, but I wanted to.'

* * *

Ventus's door stung when Sora reached for it.

'I'm not sure this is safe,' Sora admonished. 'You're only in the pathway between because I'm holding you. I'm worried what would happen if I let go. I should bring you back to Twilight Town and have you wait there.'

Xion shook her head. 'I'm still a Nobody. I can forge paths in the dark just fine.'

Sora looked at her sideways. Xion was no damsel in distress. 'Fine. You try his door.'

Xion reached out, and the darkness parted easily.

'Sometimes you just need the right key.'

Xion adjusted Sora's grip, until she was the one escorting him. 'Come on, we have a damsel in distress to rescue.'

'What do you… oh.'

Sora found himself on an island, floating in the night sky, with a little bit of grassy grounds and a castle, and nothing else. It was larger than a clocktower, for sure, but much smaller than the city Roxas had made, and certainly much less stable. Sora felt it was the mental equivalent of being held together by gum and shoelaces.

Even now, bits and pieces of the world were breaking away, floating out into the aether.

'Ventus must be in the castle,' Sora mused.

'Duh. There wouldn't be a castle at all if he weren't in your heart anymore, unless this is Riku or Kairi's.'

'No, not necessarily. Riku and Kairi- or Namine at least- have both been here too.'

'Castle… Oblivion?' Sora mouthed slowly, as Xion pulled him along, blasting a hole through the door on the way. 'I mean, yes, but I don't think it's significant for them to make their mindscape into. Radiant Garden, maybe, or The World That Never Was for Riku well above this…. Aurgh!'

Xion was speeding now, through a dizzying mix of stark white rooms and beautiful marbled castle furnishings, in no coherent order, literally yanking Sora along. He took a breath, and began a glide, propelling them faster.

'Can you sense him? I can't,' she admitted.

'Below. That's all I have right now.'

Xion dove, shattering straight through ceilings and floors and walls.

'Stop!' Sora shouted.

They froze in midair, as the debris did around them, stopped in time.

'Uh…' Sora admitted. 'I think I just actually **casted** Stop.'

'Stopga, by the looks of things,' Xion said, unmoving.

Sora reached out with his free hand, and bopped Xion on the nose; she flexed. 'Thanks.'

'Well, we're here, anyway.' Sora pushed off nothingness, and floated down to a throne where Ventus was slumped. He nudged the haphazardly sleeping boy, and the debris shot backwards through time, fixing the walls and ceilings and floors as they reversed back to wholeness.

'Bwuh?' Ventus asked, confused and mildly in the throes of slumber.

'Have you heard of Twilight Town? It's on the edge of the World of Worlds.'

'North, far north of Radiant Garden and Olympus?' Ventus asked groggily, not fully aware.

Sora nodded.

'I've been… once or twice. During training… good ice cream…'

'Come on, we're taking you on vacation,' Xion said, helping him to his feet. Sora hooked his free arm around Ventus's waist, and suddenly they were back in the space between in his heart.

'My armor!' Ventus cried out, but was in Roxas's bedroom before he could register that he didn't need it here.

Sora let go. Ventus was panicking, a little confused, and Xion, embarrassed to see her coat right there on Roxas's bed, flung it back on her shoulders.

'Roxas?' Sora called out and upwards to nothingness.

Roxas hadn't moved from the mirror. Only a few moments had passed.

"Got him?"

'We're going to grab some ice cream at the clocktower.'

'Ice cream?' Ventus asked, perking up. 'For breakfast?'

'After what just happened?' Sora asked, opening Roxas's bedroom door and gesturing for them to follow. 'I could use twenty coffee sandwiches.'


	2. Eviction Notice: Squatting

_**Note: Lea wasn't one of Ansem's researchers, but his backstory isn't ever stated as far as joining Org XIII, so...**_

 _ **Also a HUGE thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed so far!**_

* * *

Roxas walked slowly, nervously up the tower. He hadn't been really conscious of the outside world since Axel died, or **not** -died, but Sora had gone here before.

Like when Roxas first merged back with his human in the first place.

Some things had changed- for one, the place was Heartless-free and covered in art and tapestry.

For another, it was filled with Sora's friends.

Roxas opened the door to the study, and stepped inside. Yen Sid and Donald were already there, drawing sigils on the floor around a recliner.

Donald looked up. "Not bad," he said, his only acknowledgement of Roxas in the room.

"You did this?" Roxas asked, pointing at his hair, his voice implied in the gesture.

"Sora helped," Donald said with a shrug.

'No way, it was almost all him. Where is Donald? Can't be him if he's **that** modest.'

Roxas chuckled. "Sora wants to know what you did with the real Donald. He says you're not that modest. And he says you did all the heavy lifting."

Donald narrowed his eyes. "Tell Sora to can it."

"He can hear you just fine," Roxas replied, sliding into the chair he assumed was meant for him, stepping carefully over the chalk lines.

"Sora, **can it**." Donald paused. "Can he see me, too?"

"If he's paying attention. He's probably distracted keeping Xion and Ventus safe."

'You mean feeding Ventus,' Sora muttered. 'I know I eat like a horse but this is stupid. Especially since this isn't even **real** food.'

"He says yes."

* * *

Sora, Xion, and Ventus parked themselves in the courtyard outside the train station's clocktower. Sora, assuming the possibility of 'house crumbling' to be 'earthquake', put them as close to the train station as he deemed safe if the world started to disintegrate around them.

And then he watched as Ventus inhaled yet another chocolate-dipped ice cream bar.

"…probably distracted keeping Ventus and Xion safe."

The real world permeated Sora's thoughts, and he replied up, simultaneously watching Ventus pitch the polished off popsicle stick in a brown paper bag with the rest as he observed the outside world through Roxas.

'I'm… still not full,' Ventus realized, bringing Sora away from the reality above to the 'reality' in front of him.

'You're inside my heart,' Sora said simply. 'You don't actually need food.'

Ventus blinked.

"Oh… right. Sorry." He reached out with a hand, grabbing the bag of trash and disintegrating it in a touch with fire magic. "It's been so long, I… forget. What's happened outside since I was up last?"

Sora frowned. "A lot."

Ventus squinted. "You're normally a lot chattier. And how come you dragged me out of my home, anyway? I didn't even realize you could come in, let alone take me out.'

'Riku and Kairi are getting the pieces of their heart back soon, um… my friends.'

'The scowler with the white hair and the redhead girl?'

Sora nodded. 'Lea thinks that'll mess with the stability of my heart, so I'm keeping you two in one place while it happens. You're going to hang tight to me until we get an all clear. Is that clear?'

'Crystal,' Ventus replied, linking arms with Sora and Xion, who then closed the loop on the other side.

'So what now, sing Hakuna Matata and hope for the best?' Xion said lightly.

'Dear god, no more singing,' Ventus whined. 'You're not the person I'm always hearing in my sleep, are you?'

Xion blushed. 'I…might be.'

* * *

"Should he be conscious?" Riku asked, looking mildly surprised at Roxas drumming fingertips on the armrest.

Lea nodded. "Probably for the best."

"This gonna hurt?" Roxas asked.

Lea looked him up and down. "I'd be shocked if it didn't." He frowned. "If only Axel was up to see this," he added, peering over a checklist.

Roxas just huffed. "Why isn't he?"

"Working way too late last night. Body's got a mild case of sleep deprivation even though I got a solid ten hours shut eye," Lea replied, peering over his notes. "Would you be okay being restrained, Roxas?"

"What's the alternative?"

"Accidentally punching yourself in the face from a seizure."

"So, you had Sora switch so he wouldn't feel pain," Roxas accused.

"No, I had him switch because he can't be shattered, and you'll **all** feel pain if it happens. At least, that's what I think."

"Not that your opinion's worth much," Roxas muttered low.

Lea flipped the clipboard to face Roxas. "You **do** know I got my PhD in this at 22, right? I was one of Ansem's research assistants. Actually," he added, ticking off numbers on his hand, "more than half of us were. You're in the minority there."

Roxas blinked.

"Oh. Right." Roxas relaxed slightly in the chair. At least if he was going to be complicit in wrenching things from Sora's heart, it was under the eye of one of the preeminent scholars on the subject, even if said researcher certainly didn't act like a scientific genius under 30.

"Hey, we're right here," Lea said, uncharacteristically gently, poking his own heart, carefully stepping around the sigils as he walked to Roxas in the middle of the room. "And, as soon as I know Riku and Kairi have their pieces back and Ventus and Xion are undamaged, I can put you into a deep magic-induced sleep. You can just rest it off and recover. I'll do the same for them," he added, jabbing his thumb towards Riku and Kairi, waiting outside the sigils with their keyblades drawn.

Roxas nodded.

"You trust Axel, right? Then trust me, too."

* * *

"Keep your breathing steady, all of you," Lea admonished, standing outside the circle. "Riku, Kairi, blades up."

Sora's friends drew their keyblades, aiming them at Roxas.

"Like we're locking a world's keyhole," Riku said under his breath.

A beam of light shot from each keyblade, following the convoluted sigil paths drawn on the floor, before piercing Roxas through the heart. He strained in the padded shackles Donald had conjured.

" **Breathe** ," Lea demanded.

The beams of lights bounced once, and the room resounded with a loud echoing click, like a lock being turned.

All three of them passed out on the spot.

* * *

'It's coming,' Sora murmured. He white-knuckled his companions on the wrist, as the world began to lurch and warp under them.

'Fuck,' Xion snapped.

'It's your clocktower, keep it stable!' Sora cried, for the first time in a very long time completely at a loss.

It was like Ventus's space- the edges of the city were quite literally disintegrating into nothingness. Sora had been to Twilight Town, sure, but he never lived there. He'd grown up at… at the beach.

Xion's eyes flicked sideways, away from watching the clocktower for a moment. 'There's no ocean this close to the city square!' she cried, smelling the strong salt air of Destiny Islands just on the other side of the plaza's balustrade.

'Is now,' Sora replied, focusing on keeping his shoreline intact. 'We'll fix it later, for now just keep this from falling to bits by **any means necessary!** '

A shuddering crack as Roxas's residential district began to dissolve.

Ventus quickly replaced it by Castle Oblivion, in much better shape than Sora had seen in his own dreaming state.

Xion muttered something about why it had to be **that** , and the three of them leaned forward, hugging each other tightly, foreheads touching as they maintained focus over the disjointed mess.

And then, as suddenly as it had come, the rumbling stopped.

Sora hitched a breath, before realizing he was just reacting to his own corporeal body going unconscious, as Roxas materialized into view next to the stations's base. He crossed his arms, sighed, and surveyed the damage.

' **Fuck** , well…' he said, reaching out to help the other three up. 'I mean… I did always promise to take Xion to the beach.'

* * *

Donald quickly worked with Yen Sid's animated cleaning supplies to wash a clear path to Roxas, breaking the chalk sigils and ending their power, while Lea and Yen Sid himself checked Kairi and Riku's vitals.

"Hell of a fall," Lea muttered, to Yen Sid's glare. "Oh come on, now is **not** the time for a manners lecture."

"Riku has a concussion," Yen Sid said simply. "What do you do to mitigate?"

"Immediate panacea spell, lowest-tier Blizzard targeting the area at half power. Don't use Curaga until after confirmation that swelling subsided," Lea said, almost automatically.

"Good," Yen Sid replied, peering at Kairi as he began to administer treatment.

"Kairi is fine, she seemed prepared to take that spill," Lea continued. "She'll have a couple of shiners, but that's it. Esuna should be enough."

Yen Sid nodded in agreement, and Lea let the magic flow through him, gingerly touching Kairi's bruising.

"Where they lie, Lea," Yen Sid admonished, leaving Riku, with a few patches of lingering ice crystals ghosting his skin, right there on the floor. "Donald, how is our group home faring?"

Donald looked mildly upset. "Breathing, but no pulse. I've given him Thundaga three times now and…"

"Wait," Lea admonished. "He's a Nobody."

" **Sora's** body," Donald replied, mildly panicked.

"Hang on," Lea commanded, standing up fast enough for head-rush as he strode to the chair. He took two fingers to Sora's unconscious body's neck, then wrist.

"Tell Axel to take his pulse," Lea commanded, flopping down on the wet floor at the teen's feet, breath hitching a moment before his eyes shot open, groggy.

"Take your pulse," Yen Sid demanded.

"I'm a Nobody why would I have a- ohhhh," Axel said, likely getting a similar order from Lea within. He put two fingers to his own neck, then his wrist. Donald reached out and did the same for his own piece of mind.

"No pulse. Even in Lea's body."

Yen Sid and Donald let out a collective sigh. Axel slowly disentangled himself from the floor, surveying the damage and mentally putting together what transpired.

"Party without me, huh?" he commented, before taking in 'Roxas' in front of him. "Holy hell. Okay. So that explains dragging me out of…" Axel said, yawning heavily. "…out of my quarter night's sleep."

Axel reached over and checked Sora-cum-Roxas's neck anyway.

"Dead as a proverbial door-nail, if a Nobody weren't in charge," Axel commented. "Can I go back to bed now?"

* * *

'Are we going to leave it like this?' Sora asked them curiously. 'I mean, other than cleaning up the debris and stuff.'

'It does seem more stable,' Xion commented.

'I am **really** not opposed to a waterfront view,' Roxas said, smiling. 'Sora, you even gave us **weather** ,' he added, when he realized his hair was being ruffled in a light breeze.

'Us?'

'Well, at the very least, Xion's space is part of mine, so yes, us. And I'm assuming you're Ventus?' Roxas asked curiously, holding out a hand. 'I'm not **your** Nobody, am I?'

Ventus shrugged. 'Think you're a bit of both of us,' he offered back, taking the hand. 'Though I wasn't expecting you to look so much like me.'

Roxas turned to Sora. 'It's your heart, you're the only one who can travel freely. Wanna head out and survey?'

'I was gonna help clean,' he offered. 'But I should probably check around first.'

Sora drew his Keyblade, and disappeared.

* * *

Pitch black nothingness.

That's how his heart felt. It was empty. Just a few stained glass panes of his own memories he gingerly bounced from as Sora moved through his heart.

He wondered if he should have been more proactive earlier. It felt like he was making up for lost time.

Sora closed his eyes, and cast Scan on his own heart.

Riku and Kairi were gone, and there was now a single door in his heart, one that seemed to feel a lot stronger and more organized, despite the mis-mash of Worlds it had become.

Xion, Ventus, and Roxas's spaces had merged into one landscape- actually. That wasn't quite right.

Even his own tiny chamber no longer existed in his heart. It was part of Twilight Town, now, too.

* * *

Sora popped back into Twilight, flinging into nothingness before falling at high speeds from the sky. Sora focused on flight, and stilled the fall into a gentle, bobbing float like he was treading water.

It made sense, Roxas's house was gone. He should probably rectify that first.

Slowly, he lowered himself to the train station square. The breeze he'd accidentally created had picked up considerably, and if he peered over the railing, he could see Xion below, clutching a broom. She looked up, materialized a large janitorial broom, the kind almost as wide as it is tall, and flung it to Sora.

'Go fix the theater district, I have the shoreline covered.' She returned to sweeping the beach, and Sora watched as the few parts where there was merely holes to nothingness change to normal sand under the broom.

Sora looked at his own. 'You're just a mental projection of my desire to fix this place,' he said to it, holding it between his hands. 'So you're basically a big wand. A really, **really** big wand.'

He sighed. 'Please don't hate me.'

* * *

Ventus flew around his new addition to Twilight Town. Occasionally, he'd find something in his castle he didn't like- the windows were warped or a gargoyle was looking at him the wrong way- and he whacked it with his Keyblade, thinking of how he really wanted it to be. The castle had squatted itself right over the creepy old mansion just beyond the city's eastern forest, and Roxas had been happy to let the thing take its place.

'How's it coming?' Roxas asked, floating lazily next to Ventus. 'I've got the residential district back. I wouldn't say to **normal** , but it's nice. You want a house there or is this going to be your personal space?'

Ventus grunted, thwacking at a chimney, until it changed colors. 'Dunno. Castle inside is empty, haven't figured out what to do with it yet. It's just white.'

'Sora's space might be laid inside it. He spent a lot of time recovering there too, y'know. And I didn't see any structures on the beach he made.'

Ventus just grunted, smacking a few shingles. 'I don't want this place as my home,' he admitted. 'It's just the place I know the most about.'

'Come on, then, let me walk you through downtown and you can pick out a brownstone,' Roxas replied, hand outstretched.

Ventus stared at the castle.

'I could use getting out of the house more.'

* * *

The four of them met at the clock plaza, their work, for the time being, complete. And, for the first time, the sun actually began setting on the city.

'Who added the day-and-night cycle?' Roxas asked.

Ventus raised his hand. 'I wanted to see some stars.'

'It's nice,' Xion said, hugging her knees to her chest.

Roxas dragged a large, metal street trash can to the plaza, and cast Firaga. The can came ablaze in a warm, friendly bonfire. 'Sora, do you want to sleep or take over?'

' **Outside**?'

'Yeah.'

'Sleep,' he admitted.

Roxas looked between Xion and Ventus. 'Well, it's one of you, then, because I'm totally drained.'

'Nose goes!' Xion cried, touching her nose.

Roxas laughed, pointing to Ventus. 'You're up, Aurora.'

'Wait, **what**? How do I even do that anyway?'

'Just… open your-'

* * *

"Sora has a pulse," Lea said surprised. "He must be coming back around."

Yen Sid sat in a plush chair in the study, the three unconscious teens moved onto cots but not out of the room so they could be monitored together. "Kairi's heart rate is speeding up as well," Yen Sid commented. "Though Riku makes no progress."

Donald shut his book, and waddled to Sora, checking his pulse and temperature.

"Eyes…" Sora muttered. "Open my eyes…"

" **Easy** , Sora," Lee commanded.

"Not Sora," he replied, voice like sandpaper.

"You're not Roxas."

"Ventus," the teen replied, still getting accustomed to having a corporeal form. "Ven is fine, though."

Yen Sid got out of his chair for that. "Take your time, child. Don't move rashly. How are the others?"

"Exhausted, but fine," Ventus replied. "Most of the inside of Sora's heart collapsed- that wasn't his, at least. There was enough there to rebuild, though."

"Does it hurt?" Lea asked.

Ventus squinted. "You're that Nobody that was chasing Sora around."

"Was," Lea corrected. "Have you been sleeping inside Sora? What's the last you remember?"

Ventus closed his eyes. "Last time I was awake… Sora was helping Santa Claus with something."

"That doesn't exactly narrow things down," Donald squinted at him. "He's helped on that world a few times. Anything else?"

"He fixed your planet's cornerstone, and the last time **I** was there myself it was just a resort town," Ventus added. "That's about all I've got."

"That was a few years ago," Donald replied. "How old **are** you, anyway?"

Lea squinted. "Waitasec. **You**. **Ventus**. I **know** you! You carry your keyblade backhanded don't you? Small world."

Donald looked confused as to how the two could have possibly ever met, but Yen Sid understood.

"Ventus was about sixteen or seventeen when he disappeared, and I remember him going to and from Radiant Garden often. And that was over a decade ago, close to fifteen years. You probably saw him on the streets as a child or teen yourself, Lea. I know how much all the Garden children wanted to be Keyblade masters themselves."

Lea nodded. " **Great**. I thought **I** was the mature one in our group."

"I haven't been awake much in the last decade, if that strokes your ego," Ventus supplied with a bit of a laugh.

"Where is your body, anyway?" Lea asked curiously. "You're not like the two Nobodies Sora still has housed in him. You have somewhere to go to."

" **Home** ," Ventus said, as Donald helped him sit upright. "The Land of Departure. The rest of them have been calling it Castle Oblivion, though. That… doesn't sound good."

Lea frowned. "It's **not**. And I've searched that place a million times over. If you're still in there, that's going to be a fun time. And by **fun** , I mean **terrible**."

"Mph," a voice muttered, breaking their chat.

Kairi was stirring.

* * *

Riku finally roused about an hour later, and shakily went through yet another round of introductions with another one of Sora's freeloaders.

"So, how many more 'pleased to meet you's?" Riku joked weakly.

"Just one. Xion," Ventus said, now sitting upright on his own and carefully attempting to stretch sore limbs. Lea pressed firmly on his back so Ventus could try touching his toes in bed.

"Think you can walk?" Lea asked him.

Ventus just shrugged. "Worth a shot."

Lea held out his arm, and Ventus gripped it. He floated out of the hastily assembled cot, before realizing he was lazily floating. "Works too, I guess. Didn't realize I could still fly."

* * *

Ventus sat up in Sora's bed.

"Anyone up?" he asked the air. Lea peeked his head in.

"Need something, squirt?"

"Older than you," Ventus cracked back.

"Pick one," Lea muttered. "Can't be both. Come on, what's up, Ven? It's getting late. You should sleep."

"I've done nothing but veg all day," Ventus replied.

"Well, you're not in any condition to run around, that's for sure. So, talk."

"Everyone I know… they're all gone, aren't they? I mean, no offense, you knew me but it wasn't a two way street."

Lea swallowed. "What worlds did you visit? It's only been a decade. There's plenty of people out there."

"Where's Aqua and Terra then?"

Lea looked down, breaking eye contact. "Actually, we've been trying to find all three of you. Now that we know your body's in Oblivion, we're organizing a search party. Demy owes Sora a huge debt for killing his Nobody, so I'm going to wheedle him into cashing in."

"Do you owe Sora a debt?"

"Oof, that cuts deep," Lea replied, huffing and flopping down next to the bed. "I mean, I do. Kid's been nothing but nice, and genuine, and, just… I don't know how he keeps it up. He should have PTSD by now. And he's not even old enough to vote in any of the worlds I know of that have democracies, even."

"I think… because he had Roxas."

"Bah, **no** , Axel and I had Roxas. For Sora, he came later. He's had **you**. So spill. Where've you been? Anywhere that stands out? You went to Radiant Garden, I could make a few phone calls."

"Not for any length of time, really. Most places I went to I came, and left. Missions, and go home."

Lea muttered "RTC" under his breath.

"Hm?"

"No, **nothing**. Axel was like that too for a while."

"Your Nobody."

"You catch on quick."

"I do remember him through Sora. Vaguely. Wait. There was one place I passed through a lot. Mostly because I was always going through space."

"Another Gummi Ship traveler, maybe?" Lea supplied.

"No, not Gummi. Big and metal. Like… a giant firework rocket. It was some sort of police ship."

"The **Federation** ," Lea muttered under his breath. "I hate those stuck-up jerks. They think they can just boss about anyone traveling through worlds. The heartless don't listen to them, so the only people they end up bothering are the people from the few planets like Mickey's who have spacecraft."

Lea verbally backpedaled. "But hey, if you made a friend on one of those ships, I'm sure I can track them down. I just need to speed in a shipping lane and **poof** , there they are, hitting me with three tickets and a moving violation."

Ventus laughed, genuinely laughed, at that.

"So who's the lucky asshole I gotta track?"

"He didn't have a name. Just went by 626."

"Oh great, that's going to mean convincing these neurotic rats- I mean bureaucrats- to have to find decades old penal records. Got a description for your ne'er-do-well? Know what got him in the intergalactic slammer?"

"He's.. um… about this tall," Ventus said, making a shape in his hands that was roughly shadow sized. "Blue fur, six limbs, antennae…"

" **Stitch** …?"

"Don't tell me you **know** him," Ventus said, shocked.

"Sora and him are friends, too. Hang on, do you know how to summon?"

"Sum…mon?"

"Stitch's original world was lost to darkness, so he's stuck in limbo. But Sora apparently made a pact with him somehow and can pull him out for a little while, before he gets snapped back."

"That… sucks."

"Sounds a bit familiar though, doesn't it?" Lea asked. "Try reaching out. Think of him, and maybe you can pull him out for a little while."

"You… think I could do that for Aqua, too? She's stuck in the realm of darkness…"

Lea thought in silence a few minutes, poking one hand with the other as if doing math on his fingers. "You know what? That'll be **my** homework for tonight. I'm going to go and run up some calculations. For now, see if you can call your friend from the darkness. At least with Stitch, Sora can do it."

Ventus nodded, and Lea left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

"Think of Stitch…" Ventus said aloud, closing his eyes to concentrate. "Stitch… **what kind of name is Stitch**? I only knew him as Experiment six-two…"

"Sora?" A clawed hand grasped Ventus's knee.

"Six!" Ventus nearly shouted. The fuzzy blue alien looked curiously up at Ventus as his emotions overtook him. "You're alive!"

"I… saw Sora last week. When did Sora dye hair?" Stitch asked tilting his head side to side.

"Not Sora. **Ventus**."

Stitch looked confused. "Smell like Sora."

"Remember the prison ship?"

Stitch's eyes widened. "Not Sora. Ven! **Ven**! How Ven find? How Ven is?"

"I… I'm doing just fine," Ventus said, realizing he was starting to cry. If Sora had met and could form a pact to pull Six… Stitch… from the darkness, maybe **he** could pull Aqua out.

"Ven look sad…"

"No, no. Happy tears. Happy," Ventus insisted. "It's… good to be back."

Stitch scampered up and perched on Ventus's folded knees. "Ohana?"

Ventus frowned, it was probably something from his native language that Ventus's magic couldn't translate quite right. "Sure, lets go with that."

Stitch latched around Ventus's neck like a leech. "Ohana mean nobody get left behind."

Ventus wrapped his arms around the small furry alien and stroked the top of Stitch's head. "I promise. I'll get you out of there- **permanently**. And everyone else, too."


	3. Dismissal of Lease: Moving Back Home

Sora woke up the next morning, feeling both oddly refreshed and also very… it wasn't **depressed** , but it felt like a piece of his heart had been torn from him.

And not because it actually had.

He blinked the crust out of his eyes and stumbled over to the mirror. Right, **blonde**. Groggily, he touched the glowing white paopu stone above the mirror, stripping the spell. His throat hitched for a moment as his vocal chords resettled.

"Everyone okay?" he asked the air, in his own voice.

'The boys are sleeping,' Xion replied. 'I can hear Ventus snoring from next door.'

"That loud?" Sora asked, not bothering to wonder how she also knew Roxas was asleep too. Sometimes he was just **that** dense.

Sora changed into clothes, and looked at his sleeping shirt. "When he's up, can you ask him how he got covered in blue fur?"

* * *

"You're… up?" Lea asked, confused. "Figured you'd be out for the count at least another day or two." He swept his hand to the other side of the table.

Riku's and Kairi's seats at breakfast were empty.

Sora gaped for a second, pointing to his own cheek. "Axel?" he asked, looking at the young man with indigo markings on his face.

"Figured it was easier for everybody. It's just Kairi's eyeshadow, but it gets the point across. Lea was up until dawn working on something, so I tagged in." Axel smiled. "After all, all the cool kids are doing it," he said, pointing to Sora's chestnut-brown hair.

"Aren't you tired?"

"Mentally? No, I slept almost the whole day yesterday. But this body wants a warm bed, **stat**. When Riku and Kairi have been given their own breakfasts, I'll go nap it off."

"I can do it," Sora insisted.

Axel let his spoon fall into his porridge. "You sure, kid?"

"I'm just a bit sore, that's all."

"Yeah, well, wake me if you need me. Lea and I are going to run this body ragged before we even turn thirty."

Axel laughed, picked up his spoon, then let it down again. "Yeah. Way more tired than hungry. Wake me for lunch, I'm crashing."

"Where's Donald and Master Yen Sid?" Sora asked as a parting shot as Axel hobbled exhausted to the door.

"Conference call," Axel supplied, before elaborating. "Putting together a rescue operation for Ven. No assignments today, just recoup. Think they've wrangled in a couple former Org goons to help us, 'least half the Radiant Garden restoration committee, and Mulan, last I overheard."

"Thanks, Axel."

Axel just waved him off smugly. "Yeah, yeah. We owe you."

"You mean Ventus, right?"

"Have you spent more years with Ven in you or not?" Axel asked, and Sora started counting. "Ugh, **wow** , you're dense," he added, laughing under his breath.

"With!" Sora finally exclaimed, having not heard, or blissfully ignored the light dig on his intelligence.

"Then yeah, we're helping you, kid."

* * *

Sora walked with the floating platters to Riku's room first. He went to knock, but the door swung open on its own.

"Hey!" he shouted at the door. "I was gonna ask first," he pouted. "Haven't you heard of privacy?"

"You're one to talk," came a weak voice. "And I could hear you thunking on the stairs. I told it to open. Doing okay, Sora?"

"Better than you are," Sora replied, entering Riku's quarters. Everything was meticulously arranged, with Way to the Dawn displayed on pegs on the far wall.

"You don't dismiss your keyblade?" Sora asked, as he pulled up a chair next to Riku.

"Pick it up," Riku laughed.

"It's wood," Sora replied, holding the very ornate toy in his hands. It was unusually light. "A prop?"

Riku nodded. "Some moogles made it for me. A peace offering, I think, when I found out they were selling them."

Sora put the keyblade back on its pegs, and sat down next to Riku's bed. "Need anything?"

"Ice," he replied. The platter made a pained metal-on-metal noise.

"Think the castle's got that for you," Sora said. "Anything **I** can do?"

Riku just smiled. "I think I'm okay, really. Everything just… feels funny. My body's all heavy but my heart… it feels light." Riku pulled an arm out from under the covers, and gingerly touched his chest. "I can't remember the last time I felt like this. Sure you're doing okay?"

"It feels… a bit empty," Sora admitted, touching his own heart. "I'll get used to it. Your heart is yours. I shouldn't have held it that long."

"You're strong, Sora, you'll be just fine."

* * *

Sora made sure Kairi could eat her own breakfast, and made his way to Yen Sid's personal office on the top of the tower.

"…yeah, I'll come. Where 'n when?"

Sora squinted. It took a moment, but he recognized the slightly muffled voice as Demyx's. Or Demy, now. Or whatever his actual name was. Lea didn't say if Demy was his real name or just a loving nickname for the lazy musician.

"Myde, we appreciate the support. Can you tell us what you know about the castle? Lea supplied us with some information, and we'll ask Kairi later if she has any memory of it from Namine."

"Thing's a maze, and it's never the same twice."

"We've gathered that."

"You can mess with the layout with magicked cards, though. It's how most of us traveled in it. Each of us only knew how to make one or two types, though. Xemnas didn't want us all to have free passage alone."

Silence.

"Sora, you can enter, you know," Yen Sid said, voice raised.

"Oooooh, Sora! Busted!" Donald added with a little glee.

Sora blushed, and pushed open the heavy wooden door. Donald and Yen Sid were cramped together on one side of his desk, Donald taking meticulous notes in a journal. Both were speaking to a magicked projection of Not-Demyx-So-Probably-Myde in jeans and a loose, thick coat, tuning his sitar while they chatted.

"You must be somewhere pretty cold," Sora said, trying to wheedle his way into the conversation.

"Arandelle. Place is a friggin'…" Myde started, getting a glare from Yen Sid. " **Anyway**. I was here to practice my magic. Place is practically overflowing with mana. I'm staying way away from people, don't worry about me meddling," he added. "This is the first, last, and only favor you're getting," he said, his attention facing Sora. "Got it memorized?"

"Lea put you up to this?" Donald asked.

"Axel did, duh. I guess I owe short, smiley, and oblivious a solid since he turned me human again. Even if he wasn't trying to."

Donald half-quacked and half snorted.

"We owe you," Yen Sid said, trying to steer the conversation back. "Do you know anyone else who might be able to assist? Preferably someone who doesn't need to be shown the worlds outside their borders already. I'm trying to minimize exposing worlds to outside interference."

Myde plucked a string, and continued to tighten the knob until satisfied. "Other than us former-Org losers? There's this kid in Twilight Town- er, not kid, but about Sora's age. Monkey tail. He fell from a planet called Terra. Met him a couple times, dude is quick, sharp, and packs a punch." Myde rubbed his cheek, possibly remembering this person clobbering him. "Name is Zidane. Hangs out with a living construct named Vivi. Two of them for sure could assist. Oh, yeah, Vivi is a hell- **ahem** \- an extremely talented mage."

"Noted," Yen Sid said. "Anything else?"

Myde shook his head. "Nah, just buzz me when you need me. I can throw together some sample cards."

"That would be appreciated, Myde."

The musician gave a dopey smile, and ended the feed.

"Well, Sora, it looks like we have one more lead. Why don't you ask one of your freeloaders and Axel to go there when both of you aren't sleep deprived?"

"Wait, why Axel and someone besides me?" Sora asked quizzically.

"Didn't the Nobodies base themselves there?" Yen Sid asked, hoping that Sora would connect a few dots himself without a book's worth of exposition.

"Oh, yeah, right, Roxas or Xion would know the area way better than I do," Sora replied, mildly embarassed.

'If you're looking for Zidane… I know him,' Xion admitted. 'I can help, but I don't want to come out.'

"Don't want to come out? Why not?" Sora asked the air, before quickly adding, "Xion says she knows him."

"Good, because I don't know how much more crazy I can take," Donald huffed.

"Xion?" Sora asked the air when he got no reply. He had half a mind to find a comfy chair to sit in and go ask her directly.

'You- well, you're **a boy**.'

* * *

Sora stomped back to his room, grabbing a towel from the bathroom along the way. He shut his door with a soft click and took off his clothes, wrapping himself in the towel, before facing his mirror. He held the towel ends with one hand and pointed up to the paopu fruit stones strung up above it.

"Ventus," he said, pointing at the one glowing green. "Roxas, though the two of you share the same spell, it's the thought," he continued, pointing to the yellow one, skipping the blue and pointed at white. "Curse breaker. Mine. So what's blue?"

'…me.' The voice was meek. 'You… you didn't actually, did you?'

"Hey, it's a lot less awkward than being half dolphin. **Lower** half dolphin. And don't get me started on being a lion."

Sora reached up and touched the blue cursed stone with his free hand. His hair grew a little- just enough to fall down around his ears and touch his neck, and darkened to black, and he felt his throat tighten as his vocal chords constricted. The rest of him shifted subtly (and in some places not as), the last thing he felt was his Adam's Apple disappear into his neck. Gingerly, he touched it.

He knew what the curse did in theory, but this was the first time he'd actually activated it.

Sora spoke, in a close approximation of Xion's voice, surprising even him for a moment. "Do you want to come out or not?"

'Isn't this.. embarrassing?'

"Not if it helps a friend." Sora grinned, and it was almost comical, seeing his dopey smile in the mirror on a sort-of Xion's face.

'Put on some clothes, and then I'll come out. But only because you're insisting.'

* * *

Xion took a few breaths of treacle-tart scented castle air, sitting on Sora's bed. Slowly, she shifted, just letting herself be accustomed to the real world. She flexed her toes in her boots, and leaned forward to finally stand up, to look at herself in the mirror. She had Sora's freckled and sun-splotched skin, and it felt like her body was a little too… **square** … for her. Like she was putting on a costume.

"It's this or never surfacing at all, I guess," she told the mirror. "Thank you, Sora."

Xion spent the morning practicing in the courtyard alone, drawing her keyblade and gracefully smacking some targets around. She heard a quacking scream, and turned around, looking up. Donald was up on a parapet, terrified.

Xion laughed, and lowered her hood. "Doooooonald!" she cried upwards. The duck stopped panicking and looked down, curiously. He jumped from the roof and gently glided down to ground level, riding on Aero.

"Apologies for the shock. Don't keep your hood up like that!" Donald chided.

Xion knelt to eye level. "Thanks for cursing Sora," she said, holding out a hand.

"I'll curse him some more for good measure," Donald griped under his breath. "Nearly gave me a heart attack…"

Xion just laughed. "Could use a sparring partner. Or lunch," she added, flopping on the grass.

"You could also use a few lessons in alchemy. Heaven knows I've been trying to drill it in Sora's thick skull."

Xion murmured in agreement. "Could do with less sweating," she added, sitting upright. "I'll take you up on it, once we go talk to Zidane."

* * *

Xion knocked on Axel's door. "Lunch, get up sleepyhead."

"Mph, Namine?" Axel asked half-asleep. "Er, um, I mean Kairi. Sorry. I'm awake."

"Wrong again," Xion yelled at the door.

"Oh no, ohhhhhh nononono…" Axel whined. "I'm going back to sleep."

"What, something wrong?" Xion asked, a bit hurt.

Silence.

"Maybe," Axel answered from the other side of the door.

"Don't lie to me, you avoided Roxas the past two days on purpose once he surfaced," Xion chided.

"Maybe," Axel repeated.

"And now you're trying to avoid me."

"… **maybe**."

"Axel, I will come in there and smack you upside the head. Repeatedly."

"Fine. I deserve it anyway." Axel sounded defeated. **Small**.

Xion cracked the door open, and then walked in, flicking her fingers to light the sconces with Fire as she did.

"Talk." she demanded. Axel sat up, adjusting to the light, his long hair wild.

"Sora is a **teenager**." Axel said with bite.

"What does that have to do with being friends?" Xion asked him.

"Lea is almost twice his age. It's **weird**."

"You're afraid?" Xion asked. "Of doing something wrong?"

"Mhmmm."

Xion reached to put a hand on Axel, who shrunk away from her touch.

"You're afraid of touching us. Not Sora or Ventus, but **us**." Xion pressed fingers to her neck, smiling softly. "People without hearts."

Axel just nodded quietly. " **You're** housed in a kid. **I'm** housed in an adult."

"So? Lea is fine dealing with Sora **and** everyone else."

"But he doesn't… aurgh." Axel curled up, hilarious given his lanky body, and laid his head in his hands.

"Axel." Xion was quiet, but firm.

Axel just breathed out heavy, sighing.

"We're friends. You don't need to be afraid of letting us back in."

"I lost you. And Roxas. I fucked up."

"You saved Sora. Which means you saved us too."

"When Rox actually surfaced two days ago… I felt like a dog that actually got his own tail. I didn't know what to do. So I hid."

"Hey, Ven? Roxas? Sora?" Xion asked aloud. "We can hold Axel's and Lea's hand, right?"

Xion could practically hear and see Roxas rolling his eyes inside Sora's heart. 'God, you're corny.'

'If it makes you feel better,' Ventus added. 'I'm just along for the ride.'

'You think I'm ever going to say no to cheering up a friend?' Sora added.

'…you sap.' Xion wasn't sure if that last jab was Ventus, Roxas, or both of them at once.

"It's unanimous, Axel."

Axel sighed and reached out a hand. Xion gripped it in both of hers pulling him closer. Axel awkwardly took his free hand, wrapping it around her back.

"This is so weird," he muttered. "So, **so** weird."

"Not having a pulse isn't weird?" Xion jabbed, adjusting to hug him back.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Whatever, princess. And yes, I'll say that one to Sora's face too. I've saved him so many times he's practically a **damsel**."

'I heard that!' Sora whined inside.

"Doesn't make it less true," Xion muttered.

"What, he complain?" Axel asked, halfway between laughing and crying, squeezing Xion tight enough to hurt, as if letting go would make him lose her again. **Forget** her.

"He's the whiny princess," Xion said in agreement. "So, can you stop being a butthead now?"

"I don't think I ever will," Axel admitted, letting go, using the sheet to dry off his face, completely smudging his markings. "But I won't try and avoid you, that's for sure. I don't think you'd **let** me. But, if I'm a little cagey about touching you, **let me be** , okay?"

Xion laughed. "Come on, pretty boy. Fix your makeup and lets get some lunch. Master Yen Sid has an assignment for us."

* * *

Axel lazily waved a hand, opening up a corridor of darkness.

"Isn't that a royally bad idea?" Xion asked, peering into the abyss.

"Nah, I do it all the time. When I'm too lazy to take the stairs, even. Lea can too, but it takes him a lot more effort."

"But he's a **Keyblade** wielder."

"So? So are you 'n Rox. A little darkness is kinda normal, dontcha think? Everyone's got greed, anger, jealousy. 'S what makes **you** more than just a Dusk," he said, poking his own chest for emphasis. "Just don't let it control you. Don't go looking for 'balance' or some shit either. Just recognize it, and move on. Now, shall we, **madame** , or do you want to spend all day in a Gummi Ship flying there?"

Xion took Axel's elbow, and he jumped a little under her touch. "What?" she asked. "Be a gentle-Nobody then."

Axel just rolled his eyes, and the two let themselves be swallowed by the darkness.

* * *

"Ah, bad times, the horrible memories," Axel deadpanned, exiting the corridor out to the abandoned mansion in Twilight Town.

"Maybe wearing our organization coats here was a terrible idea," Xion commented as they walked out of the woods and towards the city proper. "People are **staring**."

Axel gave Xion side eye, and guided her over to a mouthwatering-inducing café. A duck that looked much like Donald was overseeing the operations and acting as maitre'd.

"Well, **hello** old friend," Axel bellowed dryly, getting the old duck's attention. "There wouldn't be an open table for four in about an hour would there?"

Okay, now **everyone** was staring. "Ah, Lea! Wait, what's with your face, boy?"

"No worries, sir! Figured people would get more startled seeing me in regular clothes and panicking. I know my Nobody wasn't well liked around here." Axel was loud again. Xion considered this. He probably did have a reputation preceding him, and his hair was a dead giveaway regardless.

"You don't have to-" the duck replied in a thick Scottish brogue, probably trying to tell Axel to stop shouting, but Axel winked at him. "If you stop making a scene you can have a table in an hour. But it's only because I owe you one for saving my tailfeathers on Radiant Garden."

Axel walked away smug, whispering to Xion.

"And **now** , we can move freely, and wear normal clothes next time."

* * *

Axel and Xion found the monkey-tailed boy easily enough, performing tricks by the open air theater. Axel dropped a hundred munny in his hat at the end of the performance, to his stunned silence. Not at the amount- it was more than what most tipped but nothing outrageous- but at the two people in black jackets. His eyes went out of focus for just a moment, before blinking out the fog.

" **Xion**. Why'd I forget you?" he asked.

"I just have one of those faces," she joked. "Wanna catch up over food? Our treat?"

"As long as it's not a sales pitch," Zidane replied, eyes rolled. "Can barely make ends meet as is with two mouths to feed."

"Nah, it's a job."

"Legal?"

"Breaking and entering," Axel cut in. "But on King Mickey's orders."

The young street performer twirled a bowling pin he used for juggling in his tail. "You're on **Their** side now?"

Axel took a wet wipe out of his pocket, running it over a cheek, and grinned.

"No way," Zidane said, surprised. "So, you're telling me I get to break and enter legally."

"And anything you find inside is yours, except healing potions," Axel added. "Place is crawling with Nobodies. The un-intelligent kind. Heartless too, probably."

"Anything?" Zidane asked, shifting. "So what's the catch, other than wherever this is being stupid dangerous?"

"That **is** the catch," Axel added, wiping off the other marking. If he was going to have one off, he'd remove them both. "We've been trying to find someone trapped in there in stasis for a decade. We'll take any sword arm we can. Or knife, in your case."

Zidane's eyes narrowed. "I'm assuming you need someone to break that spell, too."

"I never said thaaaaaat," Axel sing-songed. "But your short friend would get paid for helping too. I've got a table for four at Scrooge's bistro if you want to hear more," he added, tossing in another hundred to Zidane's tips.

Axel offered his elbow to Xion, who took it gingerly as he led her away sauntering.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side," she hissed. "You played him like a violin."

"Lea's got the book smarts," Axel said with a grin, tapping his temple with his free hand. "But **I** know how to fuck with people. Once a thief, always a thief. Dude may have honorable reasons for it, but you dangle munny at someone like that and they'll come knocking."

* * *

"Hey Xion, your turn."

Axel stood, gesturing strangely with his arms.

"You want… me… to make a corridor back?" Xion asked incredulously. "I… this is still Sora's body, Axel. I'm not sure I want to take that risk."

"Then ask him?"

"No. Because he'll say yes just to try something new."

'I'm right here!' she heard whine. 'But, yeah, I would say yes.'

"See? Or wait, you can't hear him."

"No, but I could tell by how you're carrying yourself. Lea and I have these kinds of arguments all the time."

"And how do you two solve them?"

"Well, except for really, really big stuff… whoever's in charge decides. And whoever's not, doesn't get to just force themselves up and override. Fair's fair."

"Now is this really, really big, or is this just the scientist Lea curious what would happen?" Xion crossed her arms, staring Axel down.

Axel just swished a hand and opened up the corridor. "Answers your question, princess?" he asked. "Remind **me** to never get on your bad side."

Xion grinned, taking his elbow again. "Fair's fair."

"I still got one of the best thieves and mages to risk their collective tails for us," Axel sulked as they stepped into the murk.

"And I have that person wrapped around my finger. Like those bacon wrapped dates. Ugh, I'm never going to be able to eat food like that again… it's ruined me!"

"You do know Scrooge is Donald's uncle right? Use your finger-wrapping and have him score you another rez."

* * *

Ventus shifted uneasily in an extremely uncomfortable thick, magicked harness.

"Everyone doing okay?" he asked the air. Donald and Goofy each put a hand on his back, while Lea and Kairi summoned their keyblades. A small army had amassed at Castle Oblivion, coordinated, and raring for a fight. Zidane was at the door, working with his small friend Vivi to break the locks, both mechanical and magical. Three weeks had passed, and the four of them within Sora- host included- had gotten used to coordinating sharing their body, and the heart space.

And if things today went as planned, they'd soon be down to three.

"Appreciate the gesture," Ventus said. "But Sora's busy inside right now. He and the others are trying to channel extra magic. Xion figured out how to break through my dream-castle so maybe they can use the same technique to blast a safe way down to where my body is."

"Sorry, Ven, a'hyuck," Goofy apologized, removing his hand and shifting his stance on his shield. "Just thought I'd provide some encouragement is all"

"Thanks, but the comment was actually directed inwards. I know you're doing your best. Sora trusts you two with his life."

Donald puffed out his chest at that. "We won't let him down, promise! Or you, Ven."

Ven just smiled sadly and nodded. Behind them were several former organization members, Riku, Kairi, Merlin, Mulan, and half the Radiant Garden guard. Squall looked sharply ahead at the castle, resting his hands on the angled hilt of his gunblade. Myde was lazily tuning his sitar again, strumming it to check the strength of his water golems.

Ventus inhaled and reached into the void with Sora to summon forth Stitch. He couldn't do it for Aqua, not yet. Lea was still working on the mathematics, and Ventus the heart. He could feel her, vaguely, as he pushed into the darkness to call for Stitch.

Someday, hopefully soon, he'd get to her.

"Ven?" The alien asked curiously, looking at their surroundings. "Today is siege?"

"Yup."

Stitch nodded solemnly, a difficult face to pull on someone so cute, before pulling himself up Ventus's back and settling on his shoulders. He gingerly gripped on with four limbs to shoulders and neck, and drew two blasters with his free hands.

"All right, we're clear to go," Zidane shouted at Ventus. "Just follow your heart, and we'll attach and follow your tether. Don't break too many laws of physics, yeah?"

"No promises," Ventus replied, drawing his Keyblade, feeling Stitch grip his neck hard enough to possibly draw blood, and descended into the madness the castle had become.

* * *

Ventus's job was not to fight- not unless absolutely necessary and cornered. His job was to bust through the non-Euclidean architecture, letting Xion and Sora inside steer his way.

The way the two of them decided to handle that metaphor was by building a giant wheel inside the castle in Sora's heart.

'Well, hey, if it's a manifestation of how we imagine stuff, doesn't it make sense to make it a literal compass?' Sora had asked a week before, as the four of them met for s'mores and cocoa around a bonfire in the town square while Sora's body slept.

'That's **extraordinarily** stupid,' Roxas commented. 'I love it.'

Sora grinned and pounded his chest for that. 'Coming from you, that's a high compliment.'

'You know, in here we could probably bottle and drink your optimism,' Xion giggled.

'Four glasses of the finest serotonin, coming up!' Sora cried, materializing four glass bottles of soda.

'You're only saying that because you've actually started paying attention to Lea's science lessons,' Ventus snickered, taking a bottle.

'Yeah, because you whine if I don't,' Sora pouted.

'A little formal education never hurt anybody,' Xion added.

'Didn't hurt nobody,' Sora joked back.

Roxas was about to correct Sora's use of a double negative, deciding against it and taking a bottle himself. It was hard to tell if it was just the eager boy's stupidity talking or a flash of brilliance in wordplay.

Sometimes it was both at once.

So then, at the moment when Ventus descended, Sora and Xion helmed their 'ship' inside the castle of his heart, one on compass and the other on wheel. Roxas, meanwhile, sat, relaxed but focused, channeling their magic as a living conduit between the heart and the world outside. They needed every ounce of advantage they could muster.

Xion was even wearing a tricorn pirate hat for the occasion, as she barked orders to Sora, struggling with the wheel. It was… like puppeteering his own body despite actually having no control of it at all.

'This is impossible!'

"You're unfocused," Ventus cried from the world outside. "We did this to divide and conquer, not fight over your body," he added, smacking headlong into a wall as Sora slammed on the controls.

"I move, and focus on breaking masonry to tear down this architecture-from-Hades, and you focus on pointing me towards my body," he continued, Stitch providing cover fire from his perch. "We can't stay in one room for long. I **can't** fight and focus. You need a lighter touch. **Guide** me, don't force me."

'Then give me your eyes,' Sora said, letting go of the wheel. It spun wildly before freezing in place. Sora flopped on the floor and closed his own, breathing deeply. In the real world, now, he saw what Ventus did. Not a warped filter through the heart, but truly saw as one. The room had a busted open ceiling, with pieces of Wonderland hanging suspended on nothing, and scorch marks on the walls. Five large Nobodies were closing in quickly.

"Take 'em," Ventus demanded. "Just point me where to go."

And suddenly, Sora was his eyes. Metaphorically speaking, he was back in his heart-Twilight Town based Oblivion, listening to Xion tell him to head left, but he was also his eyes back in reality, or whatever warped fragmented excuse for it this castle was.

He flicked his eyes, his **real** eyes, and Ventus plowed through the spot in the wall.

"Okay!" He panted, sliding into a facsimile of the Beast's castle. " **Okay**. This works way better. When you know where I have to be, just blink twice."

* * *

Ventus blew through a floor. He knew they were getting close when the facades of other worlds were fading from the rooms, and the cards Ienzo, Lea, Myde, and Aeleus had provided to aid in laying the foundations for the paths he was forming stopped working.

And suddenly, he floated in white.

The room was so silent, it actually hurt his ears, the only sounds he could hear were heartbeats and Stitch's blasters powering down.

"Ven's body," Stitch commented, thankfully breaking the static of the place. "Whole room is cursed."

"Stop…za," Ventus replied, feeling the magic crackle below him. "You can loosen your grip now, I don't think anything can follow us here. Cleanup crew shouldn't be that far behind. I hope."

"Unf," Stitch agreed, carefully loosening himself. "Ven bleed."

"Curaga," Ventus hissed, and the wounds cleaned up immediately.

"Sorry."

"If you weren't latched on, you would have flown off," Ventus reassured him.

"So, what now?"

"We wait," Ventus replied, looking at his sleeping body held in a magic curse. "And then I go home."

* * *

It was hard to tell how much or little time had passed in the room, but eventually, Ventus felt a tug on his harness. Riku rappelled down the line, attached on a carabiner.

"Shit," he cursed low, floating in nothingness of white next to Ventus and Stitch. "Aqua set up some serious magic."

"Thank goodness, this silence is killer."

"That's what happens in frozen time," Riku replied. "Not even sound moves. The vision of your body is just an echo, too. Light wouldn't move to reach your eye."

"I'm down there, though, I'm sure of it."

"I believe you," Riku replied. "But until that spell is broken we can't be sure what state you're actually in. We just need to wait for the mages."

* * *

Donald, Lea, Vivi, Merlin, and Aerith floated over the spell, quietly deciding how to break it open. Eventually, Lea swam in the air to Ventus.

"We don't think we can crack this," he admitted.

"So… this was a waste?" Ventus cried out.

"Didn't say that. I said **we**. I think this spell can only be broken by two people. Aqua herself, and you. Try swimming towards it. If anything goes sour, we'll all pull you back up."

'Wait, don't.'

"Sora says no," Ventus articulated.

'Not what I meant,' Sora whined. 'Take my eyes back first. If the curse responds to you, I can't help.'

Ventus felt his eyes burn, and slowly blinked out the pain, making sure he was the one in charge.

'We're right here with you,' Sora reminded him. 'Just… inside.'

Ventus clutched at his chest. "Okay. I'm diving."

* * *

It felt like everything and nothing. But Ventus knew this feeling well, from sleeping within Sora. He knew how to sleep like this, but also how to wake.

An eternity and a day later, Ventus's feet obeyed a laughable facsimile of gravity, touching marble flooring. There was no light and no sound but the heartbeat in his own ears.

There was no time.

He reached out, and grabbed rubber. A hand stopped in time. **His** hand.

Ventus knew he had no way to pull on his cord to bring his body back up. He'd have to do what he needed right there in the middle of frozen eternity.

Ventus drew his Keyblade, and pressed it into his body's hand, holding it around the blades handle to keep it there.

"Like I'm locking a worlds keyhole," he tried to say, though there was no moving air to generate the sound.

He turned his body's arm, which turned the keyblade aimed right at Sora's heart.

And time moved forward.


	4. Preparations for Rehousing

Sora pulled himself off the floor, extending a hand to Roxas.

'So, who's driving?' the blonde boy asked.

'I'm pretty sure we're unconscious,' Sora replied, rubbing his not-actually-existent head. 'That **hurt**.'

Xion slowly loosened her own grip on the controls. 'Did we do it?'

'I think we just have to wait,' Roxas said, scuffing his foot on the floor. 'We should probably go outside and check the stability of the world, though.'

Sora nodded. 'No earthquake this time. I think my heart got stronger.'

The three of them strode for the castle door, nervously opening it in tandem. Before them stood the warped, and in Roxas's humble opinion, improved version of their Twilight Town, completely intact and exactly as they left it. All three let out a collective breath none realized they were holding.

'Well, our half is done,' Xion said, looking out over their home. 'Guess now we kill time until we can wake up.'

* * *

He stirred, taking in sharp, greedy gulps of air.

Everything felt like gelatin, like he wasn't quite in control of any part of his own body.

"Heya." The voice was calm and soothing. Mildly quiet. "Morning, Aurora."

 **Lea**. Or Axel, but probably Lea.

Then the owner of the voice gently put hands on him, checking his pulse and shifting his body, possibly to prevent bedsores.

Ventus then realized that Lea probably didn't even realize he was conscious. He tried to talk, but only gurgled. Lea stopped moving.

"Ven? Can you **hear** me?"

Ventus tried to talk again, but only a pained rasp came out.

"I'm going to take that as a 'sorta' for now. It's Lea. I'm just doing your morning maintenance. You've been out for two weeks. Your body's trying to adjust to being back in normal time. It's getting there, but it's slow going. Make two sounds if you understand me."

Ventus pained, but did so.

"Okay, you are conscious. **Okay**. Good. I apologize for being invasive but until your body's fully functional you're going to have to live with the help. Sora's stable, but he's like you. Out cold. He alternates between having a pulse and not, but he's breathing fine so we think the three of them are just trying to take turns to wake him up."

Lea prattled on as he worked, telling Ventus he was doing a good job, in between talking about Kairi and Riku's own progress.

"Kairi can cast Firaza now!" Lea said, squeezing Ventus's hands. "Credit where it's due, Axel knows how to teach."

Lea gently touched Ventus's neck and the boy felt it flutter; Lea had probably put some kind of spell on him. "If you make a noise I'll hear it anywhere in the castle and come on over, yeah?"

Ventus squeaked, and Lea winced a little. "Oof, let me lower that volume…"

* * *

'It's your turn, Xion,' Roxas nudged, the three of them laying out under the stars Ventus left in their heartscape. 'Try and wake us up.'

Xion rolled her neck. 'Back in a bit, gentlemen.'

And then she was panting in Sora's bed, several tubes puncturing his forearm.

Riku leaned into the room in moments. "Sora? Vitals alarm went off. Wait… no heartbeat," he said, looking past her and at a small computer terminal in the room. "Roxas?"

Xion opened Sora's mouth to speak, but it was dry.

"Water, hang on, water…" Riku muttered, procuring a glass and offering it to Xion's lips. "Can you talk?"

"Yes," Xion said shakily, frustrated by the pitch. "And it's Xion."

Riku just nodded. "Apparently, Ven just started coming around, too."

"How long?"

"Two weeks. I'm going to get Ienzo. You stay put."

* * *

It took another two weeks of pained recovery, but eventually Sora was finally more or less back to normal, sans one person. Ventus was healing too, but slower. He was at least sitting up, doing magic, and eating solid food, albeit with assistance.

"We haven't had **us** time in a while, have we?" Riku hissed at Sora after dinner.

Sora just shook his head. "No, but we need to bring Ventus with us if we do."

Sora looked worried, as if the request would be denied.

"Why wouldn't we? He's not missing one."

Sora looked down sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess he's always been with us."

Riku slung an arm around Sora. "Did you honestly think me or Kairi would say no? Hey, Kairi even asked Axel and Lea to come."

* * *

"Dear god, kid, you're a sack of potatoes."

"Yeah, well, when I can walk on my own, you won't have to yank me out of bed in the middle of the night." Ventus sighed deeply and let himself be slung.

"It's 10PM, squirt." Axel grunted again, and hefted Ventus over his shoulder. "Wait. Fuck. Why am I doing this the hard way? I don't need to take the stairs."

Axel shifted Ventus a little to give himself a free hand, and waved open a corridor of darkness. Ventus panicked in Axel's grip.

"Oh, quit worrying, Ven," Axel reassured him. "It's not gonna sap your powers or hurt you. You're with me."

"Seriously?" Ventus asked, as Axel stepped inside and immediately ended up on the grassy hill where Riku, Kairi, and Sora were already laying, looking up at the stars.

"Pinky promise it's not a problem. Those corridors are only trouble if you're not protected from it, and as long as I'm touching you, my own protection extends to you too."

"Yeah, and how are **you** even protected?" Ventus asked, as Axel lowered him on the grass.

Axel just shrugged, and hummed an "I'unno." He cracked his back, and flopped down next to Ventus, ever so slightly out of the group's reach. Kairi was already snuggled under one of Riku's arms, breathing slowly and smiling up at the constellations, while Riku mussed Sora's hair with his free hand.

"Y'all are weird," Axel commented, as Sora sat up to help pull Ventus into their snuggling.

"How is this weird?" Sora asked, head lolled on Riku's chest as the older teen resumed head scratches.

"You're two guys and a girl cuddling."

"Four and two," the three of them replied, almost in unison.

"Touché. Still weird."

"Hanging out on the beach at night like this is what we all did," Riku replied, tilting up his head just enough to look at Axel out of the corner of his eye.

"I remember how cold the people of Radiant Garden were, a little," Kairi added. "At least in relation to the people on Destiny Islands."

"So being huggy is a cultural thing. Got it. But we're not on Destiny right now."

"You carry a Radiant Garden flower emblem," Kairi reminded Axel. "We take our homes with us."

Axel rolled his eyes, even though he knew they couldn't see him like this.

"I'm not from Destiny either," Ventus added, laying diagonally on Riku and Sora, squeezing both Sora and Kairi's hands.

"You all are just trying to torture me aren't you?"

"Payback's a bitch, Ax." Sora replied.

Axel shot up, and glared. " **Roxas** ," Axel said sternly. "You too? Well, screw you losers," Axel added with a huff, and flopped crosswise on all of them. "I'm heaver and bigger than all of you. Deal."

"And really warm," Kairi added.

"Please don't go making this more awkward for me," Axel complained.

"You're doing a great job all by yourself," Ventus shot back. "Pat on the back and stickers all around."

Axel made an exaggerated whine, but quickly stilled as someone started running their fingers through his hair. "My Nobody brain is panicking right now," Axel muttered, "but Lea's stupid monkey human brain is enjoying this. What the heck is **wrong** with you humans?"

"Social bonding of primate based life forms?" Roxas piped, trying to adjust Sora's voice and failing hilariously.

"Shut up, Rox," Axel whined, and grabbed his free hand, lacing their fingers together while Kairi gave him head scratches. "I **guess** I could get used to this. Why'd you come out, anyway?"

"Because Sora's too damn nice to torment you," Roxas replied casually. "And I'm getting used to it."

"Xion?" Axel asked, as someone gently shoved him into a slightly different position.

"Good luck getting her out when Sora's not all cursed up. Even then she still won't look in a mirror," Roxas commented. "Oh, and now she's mad I said so."

"I… might have a long-term solution for her," Axel commented, after a long silence. If he had a heartbeat, it would be slow and calm, like three of the four other Keyblade wielders laying out on the grass. "But it's going to take at least a month. Maybe more. And there's no guarantee it'll work. Lea has an idea, and I think we can do it. We'll try, at least."

"You mean extract her from Sora?" Riku asked, propping up on an elbow, breaking his position with Kairi.

"Mhmmm."

"She doesn't have a body to go to," Roxas commented. "The only difference between me and her is I was born from Sora. And Ventus too, I guess, but that's irrelevant. She doesn't even come from a Somebody like us."

"Let Lea and I worry about that. What'll make Xion more comfortable in the meantime?"

Axel felt Roxas shrug next to him. "You're asking me, honestly Sora's letting himself be cursed into being a girl is way further than I'd've done. If it still makes her uncomfortable, well, that's her discomfort, not mine. Yeah, I prefer having my voice and body type, but I can't imagine the dysphoria she'd get."

"Sora and I aren't even that different and it still took some adjusting," Ventus added.

"I'm not that great, but Xion, would a little makeup help? Like Axel?" Kairi asked. "I sort of know what you looked like, when I remember Namine's time. I can at least help hide Sora's freckles and stuff."

"She said she's willing to try. Just don't be upset if it doesn't really help." Roxas adjusted again. "And show me, too. I'm not a fan of seeing them in the mirror either."

"Trust me, I'm not going to be offended."

* * *

"Okay, Kairi. We're all ears," Sora said brightly, the next afternoon. Yen Sid had given them the time off to help acclimate Xion, and the two- or four, depending on perspective- were sitting and standing facing Sora's mirror, Kairi's makeup kit upended on the shelf in front of it.

Kairi took Sora's face in a hand, cupped it, and turned it side to side. "Okay, I'll teach you how to smooth out your skin tone first. It'll help both your freeloaders feel a little better. Why didn't you just do some kind of more complex curse to begin with?"

"Donald is good at general stuff, but that goes **deep** into specialized shapeshifting. He can sort of control the flow of how stuff changes to match the worlds we visit, but he can't exactly take or do requests. Remember when you went to Halloweentown the first time?"

"Oh yeah, I asked if he could make me a witch. I ended up a demon. And Lea turned into the **cutest** hellhound," she added with a giggle. "He's so fluffy when we visit!"

"Donald can cast spells to make someone fit in, but that's as far as it goes. I'm just shocked how much changes for Xion. She really doesn't feel comfortable in here, I guess," Sora said, touching his heart.

"Axel did say Lea and he had an idea…"

"I don't want to think where they'd get her a body. It's gotta come from **somewhere** , right?"

"They wouldn't just kidnap someone to use as a vessel, I'm sure he's got a more ethical plan than that. Now, are all of you paying attention? You want to wipe your face clean first, so there's no oil."

* * *

"So? Any better?"

Xion had taken over once Sora and Roxas got the hang of concealing his impressive islander freckle-pocked face.

She was a nervous learner, but slowly, she accepted Kairi's teaching, and looked at her own face staring back in the mirror.

"I hate doing this," she admitted.

"What? Makeup… or borrowing Sora?"

"Sora." Xion looked down and away, pulling at the now-black hair. "I just… he's doing all of this for me, and yet…"

Xion let her hands still on her lap. "I'm constantly reminded this isn't me." She looked down at her hands, too broad for her and covered with callouses and uneven nails. "He's given me a gift he absolutely didn't have to. And went out of his way to make it the best he could. How many guys are willing to do this for a stranger?" she asked, gesturing to herself in the mirror. "He didn't even hesitate."

"Is this the dysphoria talking, or do you feel the gift's too big?" Kairi gently wrapped her arm around Xion's waist. "I'm not sure how much I can still help with the former, but I think part of this, at least, might be that you don't feel like you deserve it. Am I wrong?"

"No."

"A gift isn't something you **earn** , Xion. Just thank Sora and be done with it. He **chose** to do this for you. Got it?"

Xion was on the verge of tears. "I just…"

"Xion, the great thing about makeup is that you can always wash it off and try something new."

Xion looked at Kairi, blinked twice as if trying to hold back the water, and began to sob, eyeliner running in a black line down her cheeks.

* * *

Axel, Riku, Ventus, and Yen Sid met Kairi in the dining room, but no places had been laid.

"Axel has explained he has some training for you all. I feel it is actually quite useful, so all of you will be going. I have munny here for you to get dinner out." Yen Sid passed a munny pouch to Axel, who pocketed it.

"Pack an overnight, we'll be staying in Radiant Garden, probably," Axel replied.

"Wait, me too? I can barely walk," Ventus asked.

"It's more an educational opportunity than combat," Axel explained. "I'll bench you if you can't, but I want you to try. How's your magic, at least? Can you fly?"

Ventus closed his eyes, and began to hover an inch off the floor, straightening his back and treading air.

"Actually, yeah. I could get around like this, easy." Ventus smiled, adjusting his body with aero magic. It felt good to be in the air on his own power.

"Good, because I'm sick of carrying you like a sack of potatoes," Axel replied, arms crossed, before softening slightly. "But if you're drained at **all** , speak up. I can always grab a wheelchair." Axel then turned to look behind him.

"Ladies…" he said, blushing, once getting a better look at Xion's face. "Um… okay. Hello Xion."

"No good?" she asked, worried.

"No-um-extremely good… um," Axel replied flustered. "Ahem."

"You left him speeeeeechless," Kairi hissed at her.

"Sora said he's half confused about that and half extremely proud of you," she replied in a giggling whisper. "And apparently Roxas is curled up blushing all the way to his ears. It's kinda obvious he likes Axel, and I'm stealing the attention."

"Okay! **Peanut** **gallery** ," Axel snapped, getting their attention. "Twenty to pack and be down here. Keep it light. You're going to be responsible for carrying what you bring. Ven, I'll take your bag though. No encyclopedias."

"Awwww," Ventus mock whined, as he floated out of the room.

* * *

The five of them squatted in the bushes outside Ansem's old mansion in Twilight Town. Axel poked part of his head up before shooting back down.

"Okay, Axel, I trust you and all but…" Riku started, peeking out the shrubbery himself. "I thought we were going to Radiant Garden. Why are we **here**?"

"That's stop two," Axel hissed back. "For now, we are raiding the low-level nest of Dusks here."

"I could just cast some -ga level magic on 'em," Riku replied.

"Nope. This… is a lesson in restraint. **Literally**. I want each of you to bag two Dusks. **Without** killing them. I don't care how you keep them bound, just don't hack off limbs. I want them alive and whole. Unconscious is fine. And yes, **two**. That means you can't just come back to me dragging one. Ven, if you don't think you can, just hang back. I'll also snag two of them, too."

They heard a quiet **vworp** sound, and Axel was gone, slunk away into one of his corridors. Xion spied a flash of red on the other side as Axel began stalking his prey like a beast. They couldn't necessarily tell who was in charge when speaking until one of them let slip a nickname or certain phrases, but when they fought, it was easy to pick them apart, Axel's makeup or not.

And not because only one of them could use a Keyblade.

Xion skittered behind the brush, separating herself from Riku, Kairi, and Ventus. Nabbing two alive without accidentally turning them to nothing was actually going to be hard. She watched Ventus skyrocket in the air, before panicking slightly and adjusting to a hover over the grounds. He needed to re-learn magical finesse, though the raw skill hadn't been lost all those years. Spending the most time using Sora's body practicing before he got his own back probably helped too.

Xion turned her attention back to the thirty or so writing Dusks, settling on trying to freeze two in place as her means of subduing them. She just needed to remember a light touch.

"Bind, don't shatter, she whispered, as she watched Axel prowl like a wolf, almost on all fours. He pressed a hand to the ground, and the tree behind him shuddered to life. Before she could blink, he'd animated its roots to grab a pair of Dusks and flatten them up against the trunk. He looked up and grinned.

"Showoff," she mouthed at him before shuffling into position, unleashing a weak Blizzard. The Dusk exploded into fine powder.

"Oops," she muttered, as Ventus dropped from the sky, landing on a pair of Dusks and knocking them out cold. "At least I didn't bag mine by **sitting** on them."

Ventus grabbed one in each hand and lazily floated to the tree where Axel was waiting. He marked a 3 and 4 on them in chalk. His own had 1 and 2 hastily scrawled on their foreheads.

Vines extended from Kairi's blade, wrapping silently around a pair of struggling Nobodies. She dragged her lassoed catch to Axel, who marked them too.

That was probably for whatever Step 2 was.

'We aren't going to be **last** , are we?' Roxas asked her.

"Can it, Rox," she hissed.

'I can make chains come out of my keyblade. Need an assist?' Sora asked her.

Xion frowned, watching as Riku was prepping some kind of magic himself.

"Yeah, lets do it."

She summoned her keyblade, and felt almost a ghosting of a set of hands around her own.

'Together!' Sora cried soundlessly as golden chains of light shot from the tip, binding two Nobodies with ease. Riku quickly did the same. As soon as they pulled their four Dusks to Axel, he torched the nest, sending the remaining twenty or so up in smoke, nonchalantly marking the remaining bound ones 7, 8, 9, and 10.

"They'll crawl back, they always do," he muttered, before addressing the group. "So! What are we going to do with these guys?"

"Kill them?" Riku asked, watching his pair writhe in their magicked chains. "I mean, if we do, we revive the person they came from, right?"

"That's **if** they came from a person in the first place. It's the same as the Heartless. Some used to be people, sure, but not all of 'em, especially these weak ones. Some just breed from darkness. Killing those ones prevents them from attacking but they weren't **people** to begin with. The question is, how can you tell them apart?"

Axel handed each of them a small notepad. "No conferencing. I want Sora's and Roxas's answers, too, Xion. I'll also write mine down. Which ones of these ten were people and which weren't?"

Riku, Kairi, Xion, and Ventus looked at each other confused. "Why does it matter? It's still a good thing to wipe them out either way, yeah?" Ventus asked. "We either save a person's life or we prevent people from getting attacked, at least."

"You'll see," was all Axel replied, as he kneeled to take a close look at the Dusk marked 3.

'Look one in the face, please,' Roxas requested.

Xion bent down and kneeled at her own #8. The thing wouldn't stop wriggling- most mindless Nobodies danced continuously. Xion always thought it might have been because they had no hearts, no heartbeat. They had to move things like oxygen though their blood somehow. She looked at it, and saw nothing, felt nothing. It was a Nobody, after all.

But #7 just… felt different. Under its hood she could feel it crying out, despite having no voice or visible mouth.

7 was a human, Xion was sure of it.

'Keep moving, I think I have an idea for those two.'

'Yeah, well **I** **don't**!' Sora whined. 'They look the same to me.'

* * *

Xion wrote down her answers, asking the other two to not pay attention as she did, then flipped to a new page, asking Sora for his guesses, and then did the same for Roxas.

She and Roxas had given the exact same set of guesses- 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9 were people.

"Everyone done?" Axel asked, leaning against the tree.

"Yes," came a chorus.

"Notes to me."

Axel took their notebooks and flipped through.

"Riku," Axel said, looking above the yellow paper. "You just guessed. So did Sora. Ven got eight correct, so I don't know if you're lucky or sort of getting it."

"Number seven just **felt** human…" he admitted. "I wasn't sure on 2, 3, and 4, so I assumed no, but 1, 7 and 9 **were** people."

"You are correct," Axel said, narrowing his eyes. "And always, it's better to assume they're people. I mean, killing them means you're saving someone's' life either way. That's what Riku did."

He showed Riku's slip, with ten Yes-es. "It wasn't a trick, though. Only half of what we bagged were formerly people. And three of you got all of them. Good job, Kairi, Xion, Roxas. But for those of you who aren't Nobodies- or haven't merged back with theirs- there is a more concrete way to tell."

He grabbed 7 and 8 by the hood, and yanked. The Dusks cried out as Axel exposed their eyes to the perpetual sunset.

"Dusks that were human usually still have human eyes," he said nonchalantly. 8 had dark, glassy glazed over eyes while 7's were glazed over, but brown with pupils and irises.

"Oh god that's gross," Kairi whined. "So so so so gross."

Axel shrugged and let go, both Dusks drooping.

"Okay, so step next, lets send these poor humans home. **Only** the humans, now. Kairi, you're the only one with a keyblade you can use right now, unless Ven can draw yours?"

"On it," Kairi said, slashing one of each of the ones bound in Xion's and Riku's chains, both the ones wrapped in the tree, and one of the ones Ventus concussed.

"So, what's up with the rest?"

"They're coming with us," Axel said with a wicked grin. "Ienzo needs some fodder, and I promised fresh bodies."

Kairi winced. "Wait, did you just… ew, no, I'm not being complicit in this, Axel."

"Why do you think we took out the humans?" he asked. "These ones left are literally the dregs of sadness left behind. They're not human, or from any living creature. They're just hollow. Why is killing them okay but experimenting on them not?"

Xion swore she could have heard a pin drop as they all looked at Axel. He was still a Nobody after all. But Lea wasn't stopping him or taking over, so…

"Where did you think Replicas came from anyway?" Axel added quietly. "The body has to come from **something** alive. It's this or a Dusk that could be a person again."

"Wait, I was made out of one of these?" Xion asked, shocked. She touched the one still bound up in her Keyblade's chains. It writhed under her touch, and was deathly cold.

"Well, **humans** are monkey people," Axel added, quirking an eyebrow. "Ienzo offered to help us make you a new one. We've pieced together the notes. Replicas were Even's thing, not ours. End of the day, though, it's up to you."

Xion looked at the five Dusks. "I… I guess. It'll be just like my old body?"

"Better, if Lea has a say in it."

"I guess we're dragging them to Radiant Garden, then." Xion picked up the writhing Nobody by the scruff, wrapping the chains until her keyblade clinked against its chest. "I'm very grateful to Sora's kindness but I don't want to burden him," she whispered to it. "Thank you for your service."

* * *

Ienzo pushed back the fringe of his hair, looking over the group. "I wasn't expecting you until six or seven," he commented with mild surprise, as Axel closed the corridor to Radiant Garden behind himself.

"What time is- oh. It's just four local," Axel said, looking up at the clock on a wall of Ansem's research lab in the castle. "Hey, we at least can snag a dinner special downtown."

"I didn't even finish prepping the intake room."

"Lea said he'd help, if you take this Dusk off my hands so I can sit."

"Just a moment, Axel, hang on," Ienzo said, as he rifled through an upright container of medicines. He screwed one in a syringe, plunging it in the Nobody's neck.

"Night-night," Axel commented. "And me, too," he added, flopping on a chair when Ienzo moved the now comatose Nobody onto the floor. In a moment, Lea shot upright, rubbing at the markings on his face.

"Sanitary wipes are next to the medicine cabinet, Lea," Ienzo commented without looking up. "Welcome back to the land of the living."

Lea washed his hands at the sink, wiped down his face, and put on gloves, a lab coat, and safety goggles, tying his mane back into a tight ponytail. In seconds, his whole demeanor changed from wild Nobody to focused scientist.

"Let me go sterilize the ops room. This might be a while, so I guess you four will be on your own."

He tossed the munny pouch to Ventus. "You're the oldest, you're responsible. Just don't stay out too late, and borrow a wheelchair from the infirmary upstairs if you need it. Dilan'll show you to your rooms," he added, as he drugged the rest of the Dusks into submission with more injected medicine. "I'm not getting sleep tonight, that's for sure."

* * *

"Just do you know, that really squicked me out too," Ventus said, floating lazily next to Riku, scanning the city center. "Ugh, no offense Xion, but those things are creepy as hell up close."

"None taken, it made me a little uncomfortable too," Xion replied. "Dusks are so… cold. And they writhe around like they're electrocuted. It's… ugh. But I promise, I looked like a normal person. And now I know why Xemnas constantly threatened people with being turned to Dusks. At least for me, I **was** one."

Kairi grabbed Xion's hand. "I'm sure it will be fine. It was the first time, right? Also, dear god. Sora? Take care of your nails. Sheesh."

Riku laughed. "What, that bad?"

"Look at this shit!" Kairi said, tugging Xion's arm. "I mean, the callouses are one thing- I've got those too- but this is just gross."

Riku sheepishly looked at his own grimy fingernails. "I can't believe you cursed over **that**."

"My body's only been out of stasis a month, and I was unconscious for half of it, don't look at me."

Kairi huffed, letting go of Xion, and grabbed Ventus's floating ankle with one hand and Riku's wrist with the other.

"You're **all** coming with me to the salon. No butts."

* * *

"It's nice, right?"

Kairi was seated in a pedicure chair next to Xion, relaxed, as an attendant scrubbed mercilessly at her heel.

"It's a bit weird," Xion replied sheepishly. "I don't think I'm used to all this attention. You see how squirmy Axel is about being touched. I think it's a you-know-what thing in general."

"Yeah, I had to hold your face earlier when teaching you eyeliner," Kairi said giggling. "You're so…"

" **Twitchy**. Like any other Not-a-word-I'll-use-in-public," Xion finished for her, looking to her side. "And look at Aurora, over here. Dude can't even stay awake." Sure enough, Ventus was nodding off in the chair next to Xion, while waiting his turn, up to his calves in the hot footbath.

"We'll wake him when we have an attendant," Xion's stylist said, laughing. "Sounds like the four of you needed to relax."

"We just blew up a Dusk nest," Kairi replied. "Oh, and when we get our manicures, can you not get rid of the callouses?"

"You four on the guard?" her own stylist asked, jokingly. "Bit young. I guessed ballet. Your two guy friends have the muscles for lifts, and you've got the feet of someone who moves a lot." Riku blushed a little at the comment. Kairi just shook her head and summoned her Keyblade.

"All four of you?" the woman asked, shocked.

"Yeah," Xion replied, activating her own and dismissing it. Riku shrugged, and did the same.

The two women working on them stared at each other in disbelief. "Um… if you need anything…"

"We'll pay for it," Kairi and Riku commented in unison, stubbornly.

* * *

"Wow, that was really relaxing, plus the food was good!" Ventus was literally floating on cloud nine as the four headed back for the castle. "Oooh, ohh, while we're here can we stop and get snacks? I want a soda."

"Any more bubbles and you're going to float off, Ven," Riku said with an eye roll. "But we have munny left over, I wouldn't mind hitting up an actual grocery."

"Junk food, junk food!" Ventus cheered, flying up. Xion jumped, catching his ankle and pulled him back closer to ground level.

"I… think I'm going to turn in," Xion admitted. "Someone needs to check on Lea."

"And your bod-mph!" Ventus cried, as Kairi shot him with a silencing spell.

"You know the path in, right, Xion?" Kairi asked, ignoring an irate Ventus.

"Mhmmm, just talk to or ask for Dilan if I get lost."

 **Dilan**. Xaldin's human. Xion frowned. Maybe because she could still talk to Axel and Roxas as their own separate people. But Xaldin shouldn't have existed in the first place to mourn him. Nor should she, for that matter. They killed Nobodies, so that the humans that had their hearts ripped from them could be whole.

Xion didn't have a human to become. That's why she felt so awkward on Sora's body. It wasn't the offness of it- though that didn't help in the slightest- it was the generosity.

Xion shouldn't even have-

"Hey, Xion!" The voice was gruff, and it was attached to an even more so man with scraggly hair carrying a royal lance.

"Dilan," she replied politely. Her feet had walked themselves back already.

"Can I… help you? Get you anything?"

"I'm fine, I just want to see Lea."

"It… they're operating on a Dusk," Dilan said, nervously, as he opened the giant castle door for her. "I was told to keep non-personnel out of the ops room."

Xion winced. "Does it… feel pain?"

Dilan shrugged. "I'm hired muscle, not a scientist. Beats me. But they drug it up just in case it might. I mean…" The man looked uneasy. "Xaldin felt pain."

"I did too, when I was hit. I do now too but I'm in a human so, I don't think it's comparable."

"Xion… this might sound out of place, but may I hug you?"

"Hug me?" she asked, confused.

"It's… something I've been doing since coming around again. Finding a former member of the organization and… well, it gives me some closure."

"I'm not a Somebody."

"Neither is Axel."

"He's got Lea."

"Lea isn't Axel. I'm not Xaldin."

"Does telling yourself that help you sleep at night?" Xion snapped.

Oddly, Dilan didn't even flinch at the comment.

"It does."

Xion bit her lip and wrapped her arms around Dilan. "This help too?" She could hear Dilan's heart though his guard's coat.

Dilan just silently wrapped his arms around her. "I can't change the past. But I won't ever let that happen again."

* * *

Lea sat in the diagnostics room, poking at takeout.

"You know, it's past midnight your time," Ienzo reminded him. "You should sleep. This is going to take a few weeks to do, anyway. It's a marathon, not a sprint."

"I know. But… I see how upset Xion is. And maybe… it might work for Roxas too. And Axel."

"You want to rip Axel out of you?" Ienzo asked, sliding in across him and snagging a container of spicy tofu. "I'm not sure that's wise."

"I don't care if it's wise, he deserves to be his own person."

"Is he… safe?"

"Are you?" Lea replied, poking at Ienzo's heart. "Zex is in there too, isn't he?"

"Just the memories. From my understanding only you and Sora are like this. Not even Kairi, who has Namine. I think it's because our Nobodies accepted their lot in life."

"And that's why I want him to be free. He's still fighting. And no matter how much I can give him, it won't be enough."

Ienzo munched thoughtfully. "Fair. But let's see how Xion does before we go and make some more."

"God, I missed Radiant cuisine," Lea muttered. "The food in Yen Sid's tower is so bland."

"If you actually bothered to learn to cook, that might solve that problem."

Xion visited the ops room the next day. Whatever Lea and Ienzo had done was cleared away, leaving a single Dusk on a hospital bed. There were tubes extending from an arm to an IV drip, and she watched the thing… breathe. At least its chest rose and fell rhythmically, the body otherwise stilled.

"The hardest thing is to stabilize is its time," Lea commented, holding Xion close. The biggest difference between the two, Xion noted. Lea was happy to reach out, while Axel afraid.

"Stabilize?"

"Nobodies and Heartless are so jittery because they're hopping between worlds at a crazy fast pace. And every world is affected by time differently. An hour here is 45 minutes back at the castle. The big thing we did last night was force the Dusk into a single time. And now, that's what it is."

"It looks… well it acts more human at least."

"You can touch it, it won't attack."

Xion stepped forward. "It's not cold."

"It's finally slowed down enough to have body heat retained."

"That's going to be… me."


	5. Building New Homes

**Only one chapter left after this one. Thanks for all of the love, everyone. Now that I've finished KH3 its kinda interesting to see where I diverged from what they did, and what stuff ended up similar. I wrote this all before 3 came out, but I've been cleaning and editing it to add in a few little things (the bistro in twilight town for example).**

 **Anyway! Chapter 5 of 6, coming up! And a reminder I could still use an editor if anyone can help. Being blind sucks.**

* * *

"Lea, you can't let this consume you."

Yen Sid placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. It had already been three weeks, and other than the Dusk Lea and Ienzo worked on stilling to a singular time point, there'd been no viable progress in turning it more human like the notes had said. Ienzo had some suspicions on next steps, but Lea wasn't convinced. And Axel was too worried about the consequences to try what Ienzo suggested.

"Lea passed out from exhaustion two hours ago," Axel snapped. "Sorry. I don't know when this body's last had some good rest."

"If you don't tell your host to **quit it** and take care of his own body first I'll be forced to curse you both," Yen Sid said sharply. "Finish your dinner and go to **bed** , Axel."

"But Xion… and Ven… Lea won't stop until he's helped them both."

"Ven?" Ventus perked up as Yen Sid asked, folding his hands in front of himself.

"Lea… said he might have a way to pull Aqua from the realm of darkness," Ventus supplied, flicking his wrist to Aero the bowl of mashed potatoes to him. His own strength and dexterity were back to pre-slumber levels, but he still preferred his aero-based telekinesis, if only to show off a little.

"Oh for the love of… **Axel**."

"Don't look at me, I only have the echoes of Lea's life. I can't do the math he does."

"Put a **leash** on him."

"Good luck with that," Axel replied. "Why do you think the two of us never fully merged in the first place?"

"Point taken. Then work **together**. You can't save anyone if you can't help each other."

"…I know." Axel sighed, poking at his plate. "I'm not even really hungry. Lea ate takeout with Ienzo while they worked. I should sleep. Oh, and… Xion? Ienzo wants you at the castle tomorrow."

"She's sleeping right now," Sora said, looking worriedly at Axel. "But I'll make sure we're there."

"I'll… go do the same. Sleep, I mean. Heavens knows Lea needs it."

"Axel?"

"Sup, Sora?"

"Tell Lea he doesn't have to compete with me."

" **Compete** …?"

"He's trying to do what I am. Really, though, the difference is I've learned to give as much as I can. That also means knowing when I **can't**."

"I don't get it… but… I'll pass the message on. Or you can tell him yourself."

"It might stick in his head more coming from you," Riku piped up, understanding. Sora and Riku side eyed each other at that.

"Whatever," Axel hissed, getting up. "See you later."

* * *

"Xion, get up, Ienzo wanted you."

'Don't want to,' Xion replied.

"Maybe they had a breakthrough?" Sora asked his mirror.

'Roxas told me what happened at dinner last night. First time we see Axel and Lea in three weeks and he's **shattered**. It didn't work. Ienzo's just going to break the news in person.'

"Maybe. But he asked for you. Come on out."

'No.'

"Well, **I'm** going," Sora said adamantly, shucking off his clothes, tossing them haphazardly on the bed. "You can sleep through it if you want. But I want to hear him out."

'You're not really…'

Sora touched the blue magic stone, letting his body shift, then rummaged through clothes for Xion.

'You're going to impersonate me? **Really**?'

"Hey, Rox, what would you do?" Sora asked the air, testing out Xion's voice.

'Dunno,' the silent Roxas admitted.

Dressed, Sora spun in his desk chair and kicked it over to the mirror, and started doing Xion's makeup.

'Oh, for the love of…' Xion said. 'You can't even do eyeliner right.'

"You were in charge for the girly stuff. All I can do right is cover my freckles," Sora replied, wiping off the eyeliner and trying again.

'Hand it over,' Xion said sternly.

"Hand what over?"

' **You**. If you're going to go, at least I don't want to look like a clown.'

Sora capped the liquid liner, and placed it on top of the dresser, and relaxed. He blinked open to Twilight Town, and could vaguely feel Xion correcting his deliberately shoddy work in the world outside.

'You did that on purpose,' Roxas hissed, jogging over to Sora once he'd left the entry from Roxas's house. Sora noticed more and more of Xion's things in there as he'd descended the stairs and closed the door to the brownstone behind him.

'Yup.'

'I didn't think you had a devious bone in your body.'

'Oh no, it was Riku's idea. He and I were up talking after I made sure you two were out.'

'Why?'

'Because it's either going to be very **good** or very **bad** news. Ienzo wouldn't call her there in person just to say hello. And Xion needs to hear it.'

Roxas frowned.

'At least,' Sora added, listening up and out to Xion's complaints about how Sora did her hair, 'if it's bad news, you two seem to be getting along.'

'Is it… that obvious?'

'Roxas, **I** noticed it.'

* * *

"Are we taking the ship?" Xion asked, looking up at Sora's Highwind.

'You don't know how to fly it,' Sora replied. 'And I'm not tagging you out.'

"Because you… **fine**. Then how do we get there?"

'You can make corridors like Axel, can't you?'

Xion froze. "I don't want to hurt you."

'I think if they were a problem for Nobodies sharing a body with someone who wasn't we'd see it by now,' Roxas piped up. 'And… I may have already tested that theory.'

"You **didn't**."

'I did try and wake you, but you were snoring like a chainsaw!'

"When?"

'Last week. We need every trick in the book to fight Xehanort.'

"You're sure it's okay?"

' **Yes**!' both boys answered her in unison.

"Your funeral." Xion waved her hand, and a purple-black portal vworped into life. "Let me just… link the exit to the laboratory and…"

Xion stepped inside.

* * *

"Hello Xion!" Ienzo said brightly. "Have you had breakfast?"

"We did," she replied curtly.

"Ah, yes, I suppose by the tone Lea didn't deliver the whole message."

"Axel just said you needed to see me."

Ienzo nodded. "I suppose I should have called to clarify, but I was pulling an all nightier myself," he replied sheepishly. "I think we figured out why the replica isn't progressing."

"Good news or bad news?"

"Just **news** ," Ienzo said quietly. "I think… it's because we've actually finished. You have to get inside while it's still a Dusk. The rest of the changes would occur after you start imposing your own will on it."

"Are you sure?"

"The records state you were under tight lock and key for eight days, and without Even, I'm just going on assumptions. I think… that's the last of the procedure. Do you remember the first few days you existed?"

"Vaguely. I was wearing a white jumpsuit, in a room with no mirrors, so I couldn't see myself. I just… oh god. I **was** a Dusk."

Xion shook, and Ienzo grabbed her shoulders to stabilize her. "It worked though, right? It was just a few days while you started getting a form."

"Right. **Right**. It did work," Xion replied, steeling herself. "I was a person. Well, as much as you were as a Nobody."

"And if it doesn't, Sora should be able to take you back in his heart."

'In a heartbeat!' Sora replied, Roxas and he hanging out on the beach inside, listening to the conversation.

"He said without hesitation," Xion admitted.

"So… do you want to try? We've prepped the vessel exactly as instructed."

Xion gulped. "Not until Axel and Lea wake up. They did so much."

Ienzo nodded. "Do you want everyone here?"

"That would be… good."

* * *

Dilan worked quickly. He must have, if by the time they came back that night- Xion, Riku, Kairi, Lea, and Ventus- there was a party waiting for them. The debriefing room was covered in paper streamers and balloons.

Lea crossed his arms. "Explain?"

Ienzo poured a soda float for Ventus. "Well, if this works what day would today be?"

"Xion's birthday?" Ventus asked.

Lea squinted. "I wouldn't be counting chickens, Ienzo."

"I think it's going to work."

"Why don't we celebrate after, at least?"

"Because Xion **won't have a mouth** ," Ienzo hissed. "At least until the vessel starts becoming her. So… I figured a meal now would be apropos."

Lea tightened his jaw. "… **right**. Xion, make Sora fat before you eject from him, got it?"

"Honestly, I'd rather just… get it over with."

Lea put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to."

"I'm not hijacking Sora more than necessary."

Lea nodded. "I get it. Axel feels the same. I just don't want you to be the guinea pig."

"I remembered vaguely doing this before," Xion admitted. "I'll be fine. And if I have to go back to Sora…"

"Just… be careful. I think if you… if something happens… Axel would…"

Lea pressed two fingers to his heart.

Xion squeezed his free hand. "I can't stay here anymore, Axel. I know you're awake. You wouldn't sleep on this."

Lea nodded. "He is."

Xion inhaled deeply and hugged Lea. "Wish us luck."

"We don't need to."

* * *

"Bye gentlemen," Xion said, washing her face clean in the sanitary room next to the ops room. She drew her Keyblade and let it lean against the sink, then sat down. "Rox, see if you can pick mine up when we switch."

'Yeah,' Roxas replied. Despite just being a figment, Xion swore it sounded like his throat was dry.

Xion closed her eyes and breathed deeply, and the two Nobodies switched places.

'Hey Sora,' she said.

He was sitting on Roxas's bed, waiting for her to re-enter the town.

'We should go to the courtyard. Just in case,' he admonished.

'Yeah.'

Roxas dusted himself off and took off Xion's clothes, gripping the white paopu stone to remove her curses. He rummaged through the bag, trying to find where his own had landed, feeling his throat hitch when he hit something hard.

"Testing," he muttered. "Okay. My voice."

Quickly, he dressed in his own clothing, and hefted Xion's keyblade. It didn't sheathe back to nothing, but it didn't feel happy about being held by someone other than its wielder.

"Well, I can carry yours, at least," Roxas commented, packing the bag back up, rolling the white magic stone in Xion's blouse so he didn't touch it directly with his hands. "You really think it'll work like this?"

'Ienzo thinks the long recovery time with Ventus was because we went unconscious when he left Sora's body. Nobody was in charge.'

"What if I get tossed in the replica instead of you? It's your Keyblade, but I'm unlocking Sora's heart."

'Then you get a body, I guess. That's why you're in charge for this and not Sora.'

Roxas sighed. "All right then. Let's give this a shot."

* * *

Ienzo grunted as he yanked the drips out of the Dusk's arm. Its head lolled as Ienzo sat it upright; acting more doll than living thing.

"I've given it a stabilizer drug. I don't think it can even lash out anymore, but it was a safety. When Xion's out, tell me, Roxas, and I'll administer an antidote or she'll be comatose until it wears off."

"She might be out of it regardless," Roxas replied. "Ven, Riku, and Kairi all were."

Ienzo nodded.

Roxas reached out and put Xion's keyblade in the Dusk's hand. The arm flopped like a dead fish.

Ienzo reached over and held his hand around the Dusk's, forcing it to hold the blade to Roxas's heart.

"Together?" Ienzo asked.

"Better than alone."

Riku, Kairi, and Ventus put their own hands on Ienzo's, while Lea hung back.

Collectively, they turned the key, and there was a click, like the sound of a door locking, and then Xion's keyblade sheathed, vanishing in sparks of light.

Roxas just blinked.

"I'm not passed out."

'I guess because we didn't rearrange anything in my heart,' Sora commented. 'But Xion vanished.'

"She did? Sora says Xion is gone."

"Everyone let go of Xion," Ienzo cautioned. "I'll go get the counterreagent."

Lea soundlessly showed Ienzo a vial already loaded in a syringe.

"That's the one, Lea."

Lea jammed the needle in the Dusk's thigh, and the thing made an unholy screech, jittering to consciousness. It shot upright, and everyone but Lea jumped back and out of the way.

"Xion?" he asked it. The Dusk stilled, and nodded. "Left arm on your head if you're Xion," he added more sternly.

The Dusk complied, still jittering a little.

"It did work," Lea breathed out. Xion nodded slowly. "Hang on, I think Axel wants to talk to you."

Lea slumped on the floor, and shot back upright not a moment later, scooping Roxas up in one arm and Xion in the other.

"Oh God," he murmured, pressing them both tight. "Oh god… you two have no idea… how much I wanted to be able to do this."

Xion's mind was a little cloudy, and as wrong as Sora's body was, this Dusk body was worse. But it was hers, and it would be human-ish soon enough- she hoped. She felt warm water streaming down the front of her hood, which was her **skin** , she realized. That explained why the Dusks screeched when Axel had pulled on them to expose their eyes during his training.

Axel was sobbing on her, and she couldn't even cry with him.

* * *

"Hey Sora," Roxas asked the air as he carried Xion back through a corridor of darkness to Yen Sid's tower.

'Yeah?'

"Can I stay in charge? Until Xion is a… well, not a **human** but you get the idea."

'That's what… a week?'

"Too long?"

'No, as long as I can come out for an hour or two to train. We've been slacking.'

"Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. Um… Sora?"

'Yeah?'

"Can I… um. Can I kiss Xion?"

Sora was silent for a long while before answering, and Roxas had almost walked back to the castle by the time he muttered, 'Yeah.'

"That was a long wait of an answer."

'If this works, I'm going to kick you out, too. Then you can kiss her all you want.'

"You telling me to get a room?" Roxas asked with a smirk, before tilting Xion up in his arms. "May I?"

Xion nodded, and Roxas planted a quick peck on her forehead. Xion dug her head into his jacket as they exited into Sora's bedroom.

"Okay, so Yen Sid's put your cot in here until we're sure you're not just going to Dusk out on us. When you're ready for bed, I'm going to chain you to it."

Xion hesitated, and slowly nodded. She knew. She understood she could slip, could be dangerous.

"We should be getting to bed," Roxas told her, carefully putting her down on the cot. They heard a vworp sound, and the path Roxas left open was closed with a wave. Axel had followed, with Ven, Kairi, and Riku in tow. Axel looked sternly at Roxas.

"I can take her, y'know."

"You and Lea need sleep."

"Point taken, Rox, but please wake me if anything-"

"Sleep, Ax. Riku is on watch with me tonight."

"Be that way," Axel said with a sarcastic shrug. "And welcome home, Xion."

* * *

Xion did not sleep well. She wasn't even sure she **could**. Her memories of being created were far too hazy for her to use it as a benchmark. Was this the right process? Was everything normal?

She jittered in the bed, shaking the chains. At least they were some kind of tough plastic, so they didn't make too loud a noise as they rattled. She could see the hint of blue in the far corner of the room, and sensed body heat. Dusk powers. Of course.

Riku got up from his chair and sat on the edge of her cot.

"Hey."

He unhooked her bindings and helped her sit up. She waved.

"Can't sleep?"

She shook no.

"Do you think you can?"

No again. Riku opened his arms. "Wanna go outside and lay under the stars?"

Xion considered it for a moment, wanted to ask if Riku was worried that she'd just flee in a corridor of darkness and join to a nest of Nobodies, lost in the ocean of the worlds. But she could only howl from a face with no face at all.

So, she nodded.

"Think you can walk, or do you want to be carried?"

Xion got off the bed, and took a few jittery steps around the room. Her legs felt boneless, and she could rotate them in almost any direction. The moment she tried to walk like a person, she collapsed into a puddle on the floor. So, she pointed at Riku, and then pointed at the ceiling.

"Me to pick you up?" He asked, then scooped her in his arms when she nodded in agreement. "You're like an eel," he added with a light smile. "But not for long, right?"

* * *

Ventus found them on the grass the next morning. "Tagging you out, Riku," he announced, jogging over.

"Good, because one of us needs bed," Riku said, dusting off his jacket. "And a good time spell to get the grass stains off my pants."

Xion tried to laugh, but just shrieked like a banshee, quickly clasping her massive hands over the void in her open hood.

"No, no, it's okay!" Ventus reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You were laughing, right?"

She nodded, and Ventus and Riku relaxed.

"Let the others know what to expect," Ventus said as Riku walked back in the tower, before turning his attention back to Xion. "Okay, I'm supposed to get you breakfast. Can you even eat?"

Xion rubbed her stomach. **Yes**. She was hungry, and she didn't want to think about what that meant.

"Well, Lea is up, so I guess I need to ask him. Worst case, we bring you back to Ienzo and put you on that drip thing. Up you go. Good thing my own strength is back, yeah?" He laughed. "I guess if this does work, we'll have to do it one more time, right? For Roxas."

Xion clumsily held up two fingers.

"Two? Who else?"

She touched a finger to each of Ventus's cheeks.

"Oh. Axel. Yeah. I guess. Looks like if this works, Yen Sid's tower is going to be a Nobody daycare for a while."

Xion laugh shrieked again, burying her face in Ventus's sweatshirt.

"It's good to be your own person though. I mean, Sora was super hospitable but…" Ventus trailed off as he swung open the door to the dining room with his hip. "Think the only thing I miss was our Twilight Town. Sure it's lonely in there now with just Sora chilling out in there alone. Roxas was so worried this morning when he woke up, but Riku left him a note."

Ventus prattled on as he put Xion in a chair, and a service platter dropped before them. The lid opened to a bowl of oatmeal.

"I guess… it just goes in the hole in your hood?"

Before Ventus could help, Xion picked up the bowl in her massive spindly fingers and tipped it down. She didn't have a mouth, but she felt the pang or hunger leave her chest.

"Do you want another? It's like… wow. The oatmeal was there, and then it **wasn't**!"

Xion nodded, and the tray bobbed off to go refill the bowl.

* * *

Xion was passed back to Roxas, who cradled her possessively.

"Doing okay? In any pain?"

Xion nodded yes, then no.

Roxas twined his hand in hers, then jumped a little. "Hey. Xion." He pinched the very end of her fingers, pressing the 'skin' completely together. "I think you're starting to take shape in there."

Xion pressed a finger to Roxas's chest, and, sure enough, the very tip of it crumpled flat, her fingers inside the skin-suit-whatever were beginning to shrink to more humanlike proportions. She screeched loudly and hugged him tight enough to knock him over.

"Looks like we just need to ride this one out too, like Ventus."

* * *

At dinner, Roxas diligently cut Xion's food into little pieces, and just like at breakfast, she lifted the entire plate to the void where her face should be, the food disappearing immediately, and her body feeling sated, if not full.

"Ankh ooo," she said, then promptly dropped the plate, which would have shattered if Ventus didn't fling an orange-sized tornado under it to glide it to the floor.

Lea beamed. "Xion! You're talking!"

"Ih taaakh inhhh," she replied, then screeched. The whole table laughed with her.

* * *

Ventus and Roxas laced an arm each behind her back the next morning.

"Slow and steady," Roxas admonished.

"Slooo an steeeeeady…" Xion replied. The voice was slowly starting to sound like how she remembered it, lightening, evening out. She took a step forward on gelatin legs, and another, before sliding into a puddle. "Tooo eeeeeearleeeee," she whined. "Agaaaaain, mooooorroooo."

"Try again tomorrow?" Ventus asked her.

"Yeeeee."

The boys hoisted her up, and Roxas hefted her in a sideways carry. "Ven, I'm taking her back to Ienzo."

"Smart, I'll let the group know."

Roxas opened up a corridor, and slipped through to Radiant Garden.

* * *

"Ah, again, the time zones mess with when I am expecting you," Ienzo said brightly, as he took Xion from Roxas. "And how are you doing?"

"Okeeee," she drawled.

"It hasn't even been two days yet! You're talking?"

"Yeeee."

"I don't see a face yet," Ienzo commented, depositing her in a chair. "Can I lift your hood a little?"

Xion remembered the two Dusks screaming when Axel did so, but nodded yes, and braced for pain.

None came.

"I don't want to peel it back to your body, but Roxas, look!" Ienzo was ecstatic.

"Xion, you have blue eyes. And a solid forehead!" he exclaimed. "Though, its grey and kinda…"

"Grooooo?" she asked.

"Gross. Yeah." He knelt to eye level and grinned. "You know you're going to have to do this for me in a few weeks, right?"

"Youuuu waaaaan booodeee?" Xion asked.

"No offense to Sora, here, but it would be nice to not have to share."

Ienzo pushed Roxas aside a little too excitedly, and began a rudimentary physical.

"Well, she's still way more Dusk than um… whatever Zexion was. Not-human. But her hands have definitely shrunk and her feet are growing. Your feet," he swapped, addressing Xion instead of Roxas. "I know you probably can't walk upright yet, but you need to practice with support. Anything that helps you remember what your old body was like."

"Okeee," Xion agreed.

"Come on, lets take a walk around the castle gardens. Roxas, will you grab an arm?"

Roxas threaded his arm under Xion, and he and Ienzo laced their hands together and lifted her up as a unit.

"Slowly…"

Xion took jagged steps, and wanted to fall over in a puddle so badly. But Ienzo wasn't letting her go down, so Roxas didn't either.

"I know this probably hurts," he reminded her. "But it won't soon."

Xion braced herself, stubby legs and too small feet sliding on the tile. One step. Another.

She remembered her boots with the three inch heels, how Roxas and Axel both suggested more sensible footwear for battle. But she liked them, and Sai'x didn't make her change. It was her small personal touch to their collective uniform. Her defiance.

There was a loud crack in the room as her spindly little leg suddenly bowed over and snapped. Then her other one. It wasn't painful so much as surprising, and Xion realized she suddenly had balance.

Inside her white skin-suit, she realized she had human feet again. She pushed against her two human crutches and took a teetering step, then another before her leg bent backwards in a way Dusks could and humans couldn't.

"See?" I told you to keep pushing yourself," Ienzo said. If it had been Axel, the words would have been so smug they would have choked a Shadow. But out of the young scientist they were gentle and genuine. "I think you finally have feet, real feet, right?"

"Yeeee."

* * *

"Can I…" Xion started, the next day at breakfast, before cupping her hand over the opening of her face-void. "Oh."

Her long spindly fingers were mostly deflated now, and she pressed her almost-human hand just inside the Dusk shell to the maw of the hood. She pressed further, and found a nose, and a mouth. "Do I have a face?"

"Well, you can talk normally," Kairi offered.

Axel was out that morning, and gingerly took a pen light to the maw. "Yeah, there's a face in there, but it kinda… let's say don't go looking in any mirrors just yet."

"That bad?" Xion asked, as she attempted a spoon, plunging it in her porridge and up to the opening, pushing it further until she could actually eat. With a mouth instead of the mysterious void she'd dealt with the past few days.

There was no flavor. Just a slimy texture.

"I can't taste or smell yet, though."

"Yeah, makes sense since you didn't have nostrils."

"Oh god," Xion laughed- not shrieked, but laughed. "I'll say it again, that bad?"

You ever see a porcelain doll before it's glazed? No details, and the skin's all weirdly gray and smooth?"

"Axel, some of us are trying to eat breakfast," Ventus whined.

"Don't look at me, **she** **asked**."

* * *

The fourth day, Xion carefully tugged at the edges of the hood. It opened easily.

Her whole head was now exposed, and the skin was grey and like raw squishy clay. The only part that looked finished at all were her eyes.

She sat on her cot, trying to figure out what to do from there. She got feet by forcing herself to walk, maybe she could will the rest of her face to exist.

Roxas creaked open the door, absentmindedly touching the while paopu stone to give Sora a few hours of training, only realizing what he was seeing after the two boys switched.

"Xion!" Sora cried, giving her a gentle squeeze. "Your hood came loose!"

"But I look like a monster."

"But you're not one, right?" Sora smiled, and Xion was immediately at ease. "It's just part of the process. You know, I got turned into a heartless once, and when I'm in danger, sometimes I do even now. It's a bit frightening, and Donald and Goofy have told me the first few times they were scared out of their wits. But I never once even attempted to attack them or any living people. I might have been a monster, but I was still **me**. I'm always afraid the next time is the one where I snap, but… it hasn't happened yet."

Xion hugged Sora back, her Nobody fingers almost completely deflated.

"I can get Roxas," he offered. "I can spar with Lea later."

"I… needed to hear that, I think."

"Hey, why don't I try brushing your hair?"

"I don't **have** any hair, Sora. Not yet."

"Yeah, and you didn't have feet until you were forced to walk." Sora picked up a hairbrush and gently ran it from Xion's scalp to the nape of her neck, repeating until he worked up a quiet rhythm.

Xion blushed. Then blinked. She'd **blushed**! Color was returning to her face, and every stroke of the brush, hair sprung up under it.

"See?"

"It's happening… faster than last time," Xion said, remembering snippets of becoming self aware.

"Because you know what you want to be, maybe?"

Xion shrugged. "Can you get out? I want to see if I can completely pull off this Dusk skin."

"If it's still attached to you anywhere, leave it," Sora admonished.

Xion nodded, and shooed him out.

Slowly, carefully, she peeled, finding little resistance as the skin shed in a single bodysuit-like piece, deposited on the floor. Her body was still awkward in all the wrong places and not human proportioned, but it wasn't Dusk, either. She found a casual dress, the only thing that would fit her like this, and carefully walked, bow legged, out of the room to Sora waiting in the hallway.

"You… you did it!" he said excitedly.

"I'm not done yet," she reminded him.

"Come down to Lea's training though. I'm sure Axel will want to see."

* * *

It took five days. Five long, awkward, confusing days, but, when Xion met everyone for dinner that night, and looked in one of the polished silver platters, she knew she was herself again.

"So, who's ready to do that two more times?"

"Yeah, well when I eventually shed my skin I'm not going to just leave it on Sora's floor," Roxas commented, shuddering.

"It's going to be some more time, anyway. We sedated all the Dusks we caught but we didn't do the procedures to all of them. I'd say it's another two weeks or so before the others can be used as vessels."

"Even then, we probably don't want to have to take care of both Axel and Roxas at the same time." Riku picked at his vegetables. "And we're going to need a bigger table."

* * *

"Hey Roxas, you up?"

'Mhmm. But isn't it late?'

"2am, I think."

Sora sat up in bed, blankets pooled around his waist.

"We've got about two weeks left; Axel said he'd rather you go first."

'I did hear that too.'

"Do you want to alternate days?"

'I mean, I'll have my own body in two weeks.'

"Plus a few days of acclimating."

'Yes, plus a few days of what Xion dealt with.'

Sora gently pressed his hand to his heart. "You're in pain. Not the physical kind, but my own heart is aching."

'I want to sleep with Xion.'

Sora jumped.

'I mean **literally** , you idiot. We…almost every night inside you heart, we shared a bed. I didn't realize how much I needed to be held. The past week has been… well let's say I didn't ask to borrow your body just to help her. Your heart's a ghost town. It's so lonely.'

Sora rubbed the crust from his eyes, and half-asleep pressed Roxas's curse stone. "I'm not getting back to bed with how you're feeling, anyway. Come on, I think her room's the floor below us. If she's up and wants some time with you, I'll switch."

Sora plodded down the stairs, and didn't get very far before he heard Xion sobbing.

"Well, looks like both of you need it," he whispered, and sat down on the steps to switch places.

'Good night, Roxas,' Sora said with an invisible yawn, and fell asleep right there on his bed.

Roxas, meanwhile, gently knocked on Xion's door.

"Hey."

"Roxas? Or is that Ven?"

"Roxas. Can I come in?"

"Mhmm."

Roxas slowly pushed open the door, and then ran to her. "Are you okay? Does anything hurt?"

Xion touched where a heart should be.

"Yeah, me too."

"Are you sure this is… okay?" Xion asked as Roxas ran his fingers through her hair, shifting her so she sat in his lap.

"Sora couldn't sleep because I needed you," he admitted. "So he let me swap out. These next few days are going to be torture."

"We could all cuddle outside again tomorrow."

"And tease Axel? I wouldn't pass that up. He is SO ready to jump ship from Lea so he can steal you away."

"And you too."

"And me too."

They sat in silence for a little while, just like that.

"Can you be on your own?" Roxas eventually asked. "I'll be out of here soon enough."

"I think so, yeah."

"I'll be just upstairs when you need me, Xion."

* * *

Sora held Roxas's keyblade, facing his own heart, staring down another drugged-up Dusk.

"Take two?" he asked. "About time I finally cleaned house."

Ienzo looked on, as everyone put their hands around the Dusk's to hold Roxas's keyblade in place. "I can't even imagine. You haven't had an empty heart since being a little kid, right?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. It'll be totally quiet in here now. Roxas, you ready?"

'Ready for that thing? Never. Just kick me out already.'

Sora twisted his hands, and everyone followed. There was a loud, resounding click, and Sora blinked, looking square at the Dusk.

Lea administered the counterreagent, and then sat down to let Axel switch, same as before, holding Roxas gently as he made sure the Nobody was alert and aware.

"Hey Rox, left hand head, right hand left shoulder," he ordered. Roxas fumbled with his new limbs, but complied, and was immediately squeezed in a massive bear hug.

"Welcome home, Rox."

Roxas gently head butted him.

"Oh nooooo, Dusk attack, what am I going to dooooo?" Axel said cheerfully, slinging Roxas over his shoulder. "Guess I have a pet Nobody now."

The group laughed and chatted, moving back to the debriefing room for another birthday party.

Sora hung behind, clutching his heart.


	6. Final Renovations

The debriefing room was full of color, and joy. Ventus slung Roxas piggy backed before Dilan stole the wobbling Nobody up into a hug, offering a slice of birthday cake to his maw. It vanished in a blink, but left icing near the opening of his hood, which Xion reached up and wiped clean for him.

"Guys." Axel's boom silenced the party. "Where's Sora?"

"Bathroom?" Ventus asked.

Axel frowned, but let it slide, slinking out the way back to the ops room.

He heard near-silent crying.

"Sora?"

Axel peeked inside. Sora was doubled over on the operating table the Dusk that now contained Roxas had been laying on, crinkling up the paper roll atop it.

He looked… broken.

"Hey, hey, kiddo," Axel hissed, trying to shift into his 'relaxed and soothing' tone.

He didn't ask if Sora was okay. That was an extremely stupid question, given the circumstance. Instead, he silently sat next to Sora, without touching him.

"What do you need right now?"

Sora uncurled just a little, and stared up at Axel. There was no light in his eyes; the irises had turned a dusky yellow-gray all the way through to his sclera.

"Okay, nonverbal," Axel muttered. "Can you nod?" he asked, voice only loud enough to make sure Sora could hear.

Sora nodded, hiccuping between sobs.

"So, you and Roxas are alike right now," Axel said with a small grin. "A friendly game of charades, then?"

Sora shook no, and a cough rattled his frame. He wobbled in a way that almost reminded Axel of the Heartless. He didn't want to even entertain what that meant.

"Let's start with some tissues." Axel went to get up, but Sora hooked his hand in his belt in a death grip with strength Axel didn't realize he possessed.

"Hey, hey, kid. I'm not leaving the room. There's tissues under the sink. Right there, see?"

Axel pointed to the sink on the far end of the room. Sora let go, slowly.

Axel dutifully retrieved the box, sliding back next to Sora. Closer, this time, so they were touching side to side. The brown-haired boy began blowing his nose in loud, uncoordinated honks, and Axel took the grabbing as a sign that maybe he should be a little more… huggy with the kid. Loosely, he placed an arm on Sora's back. For a moment, Sora shuddered, but he didn't try to slough it off.

Axel sighed deeply, and pulled Sora into a bear hug.

"Breathe with me, kid. Inhale… exhale, you've got this. Just… breathe."

Axel wondered if he should be letting Lea do this, at the very least for a heartbeat. Axel could feel Sora's, weak and erratic.

The boy was listening and responding to a degree, but Axel wasn't quite sure he was actually there. The only saving grace to let him know he hadn't accidentally ripped out his own heart when giving Roxas a body was that ragged thump coming from his chest.

'Ax.' Lea had been fairly quiet this whole time.

"Mhmmm?" Axel murmured, trying to concentrate on Sora's heartbeat.

'I have a really stupid idea.'

Axel scratched his ear, it meant he was listening but didn't want to talk back aloud. The two had developed a much more sophisticated system than Sora had for communicating in public without looking like they were crazy.

'I'm going to need Ienzo. And one of those oxygen tanks.'

Axel spied the tank, and rubbed his left eye. **The thing I'm looking at?** it meant.

'Not that one.'

He scanned the room again, and saw a second one, with a breathing apparatus attached. Again, he rubbed.

'That's the one.'

Axel clenched his jaw. "Kid. I'm going to help you, okay? But I need Ienzo. I want you to count down from ten to one, really slowly. In your head if you have to. I'll be back before you say one."

Carefully, Axel detached himself, and pushed Sora into a better position on the table.

Sora just shook, and did not move, his eyes glossed over like a non-human Dusk. Or a Heartless.

Axel strode back to the debriefing room, and the party silenced.

"Sora is **not** okay," he boomed, grabbing Ienzo by the wrist a little too sharply.

The rest of the group followed, with Riku scooping up a panicking Roxas as they left.

* * *

"Sora." Ienzo said, soothingly. "Hey, hey, hey."

The group stood on in shock, except for Roxas who was trying to wriggle out of Riku's grip.

"Do we need to put Roxas back inside?" Riku asked worriedly.

"I… don't know," Ienzo replied. He was gently trying to uncurl Sora. "His eyes are like a Nobody's but he has a heartbeat."

"That sucks," Xion cut in.

Roxas was still trying to escape Riku's grip, but the white-haired boy shushed him. "We aren't going to force you to lose your freedom until we are sure that's the only solution, Roxas," he said sternly. "I don't care if you're offering."

Roxas stilled, crossing his arms over his chest in an exaggerated display of annoyance.

"Lea has something he wants to try, first."

'Tell everyone to step back to the furthest point in the room, and bring over that tank from earlier.'

"Lea wants you to stand as far away from the middle of the room as possible. You too, Ienzo."

'No, no, don't give that to Sora,' Lea whined as Axel dragged the cart towards the boy. 'That's for us.'

Axel stopped moving the cart, staring at it. It was just oxygen, not an anesthetic, so it wasn't for knocking people out.

'I'm going inside Sora.'

Axel flinched for a moment. He didn't like having conversations out loud with Lea in public, but it wasn't like their situation was a secret here.

"You **what**?"

'Lay down on the other table. If Ventus could put his heart in someone else, I should be able to do it too. Kairi and Riku have.'

"No."

The rest of the group stared.

"I'll tell you all what we are doing once Lea sorts this out," Axel added to clarify.

'What do you mean, no.'

"We go together. One of us takes over his body, then the other can corner him inside his heart. If only one goes, he could still be partially in control, and fragmented," he hissed low.

'So, you **are** paying attention when I'm working on my research.'

"You're operating on Nobodies, of course I'd be interested."

'Fine.'

Axel took the oxygen tank, and put on fresh plastic sheeting around the mouthpiece while addressing the group. "Short version. Watch Lea's body. We're going inside Sora."

"Are you nuts?" Riku asked, as Roxas pointed at Axel with one hand and spun his other around the side of his head.

"It's his idea, whine at us later. On, Ienzo? Have that third Dusk prepped for me just in case. I may have to eject to that instead of Lea."

Ienzo made an exaggerated sigh.

' **After** we eject, idiot! You don't want to end up inside Ienzo, right?'

"Oh, after we're out," Axel added hurriedly, as he fitted the mask on. "Stay back unless you want me accidentally in **your** heart."

The rest of the group pressed themselves against the wall as Axel flopped back on the other table. Axel closed his eyes and met Lea in their own heart space- a decent sized Radiant Garden styled bi-level home. Lea was sitting at his desk, papers floating everywhere with calculations, and three whiteboards filled with scribbles hovering around him. The familiar scent of coffee wafted from the nearby kitchen.

'How do we get in there, anyway?' Axel asked, arms crossed. 'Didn't everyone else enter because they were joining back up with Sora or in extreme distress?'

'Pretty much,' Lea replied with a grin, drawing his Keyblade on Axel.

'You have to be shitting me.'

Lea lunged, missing Axel and flung himself into the wall, leaving a solid crack in the plaster. He shook himself off and aimed again.

'Sloppy,' Axel replied, drawing his chakram.

'I'm a scientist, you dolt,' Lea replied, barely dodging a strike. He was pretty sure Axel was pulling his punches. 'I'm only a fighter at all from the years of **you**.'

'You're going to trash our house!' Axel spun back around, setting himself on fire and blasting it towards Lea.

' **Who** is going to trash our house?' Lea replied, jumping on the coffee table, knocking over a bottle of wine and a coffee cup. He landed a hit right on Axel's ribcage, sending the Nobody through a wall with an undignified shriek.

Before he could blink or the plaster dust settle, Axel was at his throat, knocking him to the hardwood and yanking on his hair. 'Fucker,' Axel growled, a bony knee pressed into Lea's windpipe.

And then the floor fell out from under them.

* * *

Axel coughed hard and stared at the ceiling. His nose felt clogged.

Carefully, he sat up, and saw Lea's body next to him. He looked down, and realized he wasn't just in Sora's body, but in **charge**.

Axel shuddered a little, almost afraid to talk. Gently, he put a hand on Sora's chest. No heartbeat.

"I'm in Sora," he said slowly, testing his voice. "It's Axel. I don't know if Lea is here too yet."

'I am.' The voice was weak, but it was Lea.

"He is. You should all be okay to step closer. He's going to find Sora's soul. And… um.. can I get some wipes to clean Sora's face?"

* * *

Lea woke up in a startlingly familiar location.

'This was… Roxas's room. In the simulation,' Lea realized, shaking out the dazed feeling. He saw evidence left behind of both Roxas and Xion- Roxas's favorite jacket and Xion's black blouse draped on the bedpost, a few tacked-up photos. Nervously, he looked out the window. The whole of Twilight Town stared back at him, with some stark differences.

Lea whistled. 'Roxas did make a city in here. Shit.'

Lea carefully made his way out of the house. There were a few places to check for Sora first, the beach he saw just south of the train courtyard probably the best place to start.

Lea pushed off the ground, and shot towards the beach like a rocket.

It was dead quiet.

'Ax, ask them where Sora's part of his heart is. It's not the beach in here, I don't think.'

* * *

Ienzo turned Sora's face in his hand. "Well his eyes aren't Nobody-like anymore."

Axel flinched under the touch. "I mean, that's great but this isn't my or Lea's body. Sora needs it back."

Ienzo chuffed. "Tell Lea what you're doing is both extremely stupid and brilliant."

"Well, the stupid half was me," Axel deadpanned, crossing his legs and allowing Riku to help clean off all the gunk on his face.

Roxas screeched, and reached out, trying to wriggle free while Riku was distracted.

"Rox, chill. I'm sure Sora is- oh. Lea wants to know where his part of his heart is."

Kairi and Riku looked strangely at him. "His part?"

"In Castle Oblivion," Ventus chimed in. "The inside is his, outside was mine."

"Weird, but okaaay."

"Wait, what does Sora's heart look like?" Riku asked. "Is there a whole world in there or?"

" **Yes** ," Xion and Ventus said in unison.

Ienzo balked. "Lea, this is probably extremely selfish to ask, but I hope you're taking notes."

* * *

Lea shot up, over the forest, and landed with a thunk on the grass leading up to the castle.

Gingerly, he knocked on the door.

'Anybody home?'

Carefully, Lea pushed it open, to no resistance. Inside, the room was small and stark white. When the door shut behind him, it disappeared completely.

And then Lea looked up. A writing mass of black was on the ceiling, gold eyes staring hungrily at him.

'Axel, if you can hear me, there's a **shadow of Sora in here**.'

* * *

Axel panicked.

"Lea found a shadow in Sora."

"He **what**?" Ienzo asked, gripping Axel's shoulders.

Riku passed Roxas to Dilan and pushed forward. Ienzo stepped aside, and now Riku had his hands on Axel's shoulders, looking straight into Sora's blue eyes. Axel flicked them downwards to look away.

"Axel, look at me. What does that Heartless look like?"

Axel evened out his panic, relaying Lea's description, without making eye contact. "Gold eyes. Black. Tentacle vine things. Vaguely Sora shaped."

"Don't draw your keyblade, Lea." Riku admonished. "Just hold out your arms and let him come to you."

* * *

Lea slowly raised his arms in the air, and the frantic, crazed shadow that was flinging its head to and fro froze, sniffed, and dropped down to the ground. Not that **ground** made much sense in this place. Erratically, the beast jittered closer on all fours. Lea was almost reminded how Axel would move. Above the common Dusks and other Nobodies, but… not so much one couldn't see the similarity.

'Hey,' Lea said softly. The shadow perked up, and bounded a little closer, curious. It sniffed Lea's hand and snarled.

'Sora! Sora, hey.'

The shadow grunted, and bounded, flattening Lea on his back and creasing his lab coat. Sora snarled in his face and sniffed again.

Lea very cautiously slid an arm out, and showed it to Sora, then slowly reached to smooth down the shadow's flickering purple black hair.

The beast blinked, confused. 'A….ax….el?'

'Hey, Sora.' Lea didn't bother correcting him, it wasn't worth the trouble. Sora edged back, and let Lea sit up. He shucked off his lab coat and goggles, and pulled out his ponytail. He put his hands to his face, and willed Axel's marks on his cheeks, then dropped his arms.

Sora relaxed a little, but still sat on his haunches like an animal.

'What's up, kid?' Lea asked, trying to mimic Axel's demeanor.

Sora just huffed. 'Gone.'

'What's gone?'

'All. **Me**.' Sora didn't talk so much as gurgle out his answers.

'You're right here.'

'No.'

'Sora you just almost knocked the wind out of me.'

Sora clutched his heart. 'No.'

Lea edged closer, and with a quick movement, grabbed Sora by the scruff. The heartless shrieked, but didn't fight him. Lea sat there, in the white featureless room, and just held the beast calmly.

'Heart,' it growled out. 'You have. But you nobody.'

'And I have a heart.'

'Hungry.'

'No, you can't eat it.'

' **Hungry** ,' Sora repeated louder. 'Nothing else can eat.'

Lea materialized a pair of ice cream bars in his free hand. One sea salt, and one coffee. Sora inhaled them both.

'How.'

'We're in **your** heart, Sora. You should know.'

Sora screeched and skittered along the white nothingness until he ran smack into an invisible wall. He tried to tear and rend it with his hands.

'Are you trying to… eat your own heart?' Lea asked, standing up. He looked down at his clothes, sighed, and changed them to Axel's organization attire with a flourish. Might as well attempt to exert some authority over the wild piece of Sora he was dealing with.

He strode over to Sora, boots clicking echoes on the white, and grabbed him by the scruff a second time, lifting him away and off the ground. Sora kept pinwheeling his arms like a cartoon.

' **Sora**. If you're hungry and you want to eat, make your own food.' Lea flicked his fingers, and two more ice creams appeared in his hands. 'Now focus. You're a heartless. What do you want?'

Sora growled, teeth bared, and another Sora materialized, a human. Heartless Sora drooled, grabbing out for it.

Lea snorted, and smacked the shadow Sora's shoulder, letting him go back on the floor. He skittered, and jumped, and dove for the body…

…and vanished. The human-Sora sputtered, coughing.

'What… what happened?' Sora looked up at the white walled space. 'Where… **Axel**?'

'In order, your heart, and Lea.' Lea made the marks disappear and walked to Sora, his clothes changing back to his own lab attire in a shimmer. He tied back his flaming hair, and offered a hand up to his friend. 'We are in the Castle Oblivion of your heart, and I'd like to go back to my own body, thanks.'

Sora gingerly took the offered hand, and a doorway appeared. 'I… did I hurt someone? You?'

'Your shadow's pretty well behaved, actually,' Lea said, laughing, as they exited back to the forest. 'He asked me if he could eat my heart. **Asked**!'

'I didn't know he could talk. I guess Ansem did, too, though, so it's possible…' Sora frowned.

'Any ideas why your shadow came out? You weren't under stress.'

'I.. was.'

Lea breathed out, understanding. 'Sora, your friends don't have to physically be here to be in your heart.'

'I guess… I was just scared.'

'Come here,' Lea ordered, and mussed up Sora's hair before grabbing him by the waist and shooting them both up the clock tower.

Lea settled, sat, and looked out on Roxas's creation, Sora uneasily sitting next to him on the ledge. 'People change. They move on. We make friends, and sometimes we lose them,' Lea continued as they looked out at the sunset before he squinted, confused. 'Why the fuck is my house here?'

'I guess our hearts are linked now?'

Lea snorted. 'Proves my point more. Roxas isn't here but the city still is.'

'And the clocktower was Xion's,' Sora added helpfully. 'The inside of Oblivion is mine but the outside was Ven's.'

'See? You're doing my work for me. They're not in your heart, sure, but that doesn't mean they didn't leave a mark. You don't have to come in here to see them. You can just… hang out. And if they leave and go off and do their own thing, well… everybody but Ven can use corridors. They'd be by your side in minutes, if you asked.' Lea held up another pair of ice creams, and Sora quietly took the coffee pop.

'I promise you, Sora, you will **never** be alone.'

'Yeah,' Sora smiled softly. 'I… thanks Lea."

'May I take over so I can put Axel in a Dusk? If our house is here, I worry he won't have anywhere to go back in my own heart. And then I can kick myself out.'

'You can move Axel, but **I'll** kick you out,' Sora countered, taking a bite out of the ice cream. 'Someone is going to have to help haul a second Dusk home.'

'I was hoping to not have to do both at once,' Lea admitted. 'But hey, a week of babysitting hell back at Yen Sid's tower and then we don't need to worry again, right?'

Sora gave a genuine smile. 'Right.'

* * *

Axel blinked, tumbling into Roxas's bedroom, having ungraciously switched with Lea. 'The fuck?' he muttered. 'Could have warned me first.'

He straightened himself out, and heard the door creak. Sora smiled, offering him a hand up.

'What gives, kid? You okay?'

'No, but that's okay,' Sora replied. 'And a minor change of plans, you're going to be a Dusk tonight too.'

'Wait, what?' Axel cried. 'Come on, Lea and I were learning sign language so-'

Sora yanked on Axel's arm, guiding him down the stairs and out to the street. 'You'll be talking in two, three days tops,' he said with a grin. 'You can suffer with Roxas.'

Axel made a giant exaggerated display. 'Fiiiiiine. Whatever.'

'Drama queen.'

'Damn straight, pain in my ass.'

Sora let go, and he could hear Lea asking from the outside if he was ready in his own voice.

Axel grinned, flipping up two middle fingers to Sora as he disappeared.

* * *

"Hey, buddy," Lea said softly, putting down his own Keyblade on the crinkling paper. It wasn't like he could use Axel's chakram as a substitute, but it still worked in pulling the final Nobody from their host. Ienzo held the Dusk upright as Axel shifted and adjusted, clumsily trying to use what little sign language he had already committed to memory.

"Hey, Ax," Lea said, with a gentle smile. "Chill out, I'll be back where I need to be soon enough. Oh, hold this for me?" Lea held out his Keyblade to Axel, who pawed at it nervously for a few moments until he got a good grip.

It didn't sheathe.

"Maybe you can use it too," Lea commented. "When you're fully formed, we should try."

Axel just nodded.

"Okay, last switch of the night," Lea said, flopping back on the operating table.

Sora coughed twice and shot up, flexing fingers finally taking stock of the situation. "You're all… here."

"Hey, Sora," Xion said sheepishly. "Thank Axel. He's the one that noticed. **We're** all idiots."

The Dusk holding Lea's keyblade just shrugged, and offered it to him.

"Wow is this thing heavy," Sora groaned. "Thanks Axel."

Axel just pointed at Lea's body, laying comatose on the other table, a breathing apparatus strapped over his mouth.

"Okay, Lea," Sora said quietly. "It's time to send you home."

* * *

Ienzo had set them all up in Ansem's castle for the night. It wasn't worth the effort to try and send them all back when so many were exhausted.

What Sora wasn't expecting was for both Roxas and Axel to be dumped in his room.

Worse, he didn't know which one was which.

"Come on," Sora whined. "I've had a **day**."

"So have they. And Lea said you needed some company," Riku said grinning. "Don't worry, Ienzo is just next door if they start trying to eat your heart."

The two Dusks looked at each other, almost knowingly, then screeched in unison, wiggling fingers at Sora.

"Not. Funny," Sora huffed.

"Seriously though," Riku said, looking at the two of them. "I'm chaining you two up tonight. Just in case."

Both of them offered their arms out to Riku, who cuffed them and ran links through a heavy metal safe that had been dragged in to anchor them. "It's not like you two can walk, anyway, but..."

One of them reached up and messed with Riku's hair.

"Really?" he asked, sighing. "I swear, I'll spray paint numbers on your heads. **And not with chalk**."

Sora laughed a little as one of them sat behind Riku, making exaggerated hand and upper body gestures to match Riku's annoyance.

"Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dumber over here are your responsibility tonight. May I?" he asked one of them as he scooted either Roxas or Axel out along the floor until the links went taut. "This is as far as the chains go. If you step outside of here, Sora, you're fine. In that area, and prepare for these two assholes to torment you."

They both nodded vigorously at that.

Sora rolled his eyes, and scooted his cot to the side of the room the chains could reach.

"Your funeral," Riku said, jokingly.

Sora just shrugged. "I'm a Heartless, I can take 'em," he shot back.

Riku just smiled, and closed the door.

One of the Dusks motioned for Sora to come, and he sat down in front of them. They smothered him immediately.

"For the… Axel I didn't take you for being so huggy." One of the two crossed his arms in protest, and Sora barked a laugh.

Axel realized he'd been played, as Sora quickly slapped a sticky note to the top of his flat head. Axel brandishing a middle finger, tried to pull off the marker.

"Good luck, I used Magnet."

Axel made an exaggerated huff, then relaxed his shoulders. Sora sat between them, as each slid an arm behind Sora's back.

"Thanks."

When Lea found them the next day, Sora was snoring, sitting upright, sleeping nestled between Roxas and Axel, holding him possessively, blue and green eyes respectively peeking out from under Dusk hoods.

They were all going to be okay. Not perfect.

But that was okay.

* * *

The following evening, while Roxas and Axel were moaning partial drawled out words and thwacking each other with pillows, Sora closed his eyes on the cot, and entered his heart. He tidied up Roxas's house, Ventus's, and rebuilt his own inside of Castle Oblivion, before trudging to the new out-of-place architecture.

Sora fixed the damaged wall, repaired the floorboards, and plastered the cracks with a gentle wave of his hands, smiling at his handiwork.

He hoped these buildings would never need to be used again, but there they were, just in case.

Sora stepped back out of the building, into the city square, and looked out at the beach one last time. He clapped his hands, snuffing out the streetlamps, sun and stars, dropping his heart into silence and darkness. Not the kind that brought out the things that went bump in the night, but merely a peaceful slumber.

Sora opened his eyes just as Axel flung a pillow square to his jaw.

"Sooooooraaaaaa… Rooooooox huuuuuuurt meeeeee," Axel whined, exaggerating his movements like a toddler.

"Just because your body is new doesn't mean you have to act like it," Sora sighed, jolting back to reality. Axel didn't have a face yet, but Sora would swear he'd be sticking out a tongue if he could.

"Nooooot liiiiike yooooou," Axel whined, as Sora grinned, swiping the pillow he'd just been laying on and smacking Roxas in the head with it.

"Not like me?" Sora asked, smacking Axel and dodging a thrown plush projectile. "If you want to hit me back you'll have to stand up."

"Fuuuuu youuuuuu." Axel grabbed the bedpost, wobbling on spindly legs, and Sora noticed with no small amount of pride that he'd grown about a foot in the past day. He heard one crack, and another, as Axel's feet snapped like Xion's had done a few weeks earlier.

"AAAAAAaaAAaA!" Axel cried in surprise.

"Any pain?" Sora asked, rushing over, all worry.

Axel bent down and took a step forward to reclaim his squishy weapon of doom, flinging it with his own momentum as he stood up to wind Sora right in the chest with it.

Sora coughed, and regained his breath. "You… tricked me!"

"Yaaaaaa."

"Don't be so smug, Axel, I'll peel your hood off."

Roxas took the opportunity to bash Axel from behind, and both of them toppled on the floor, screech-laughing like children, if children were five and six feet tall, and a creature that would, in normal circumstances, be trying to eat people.

Sora sunk to the floor, too. "Just… don't make me get Auntie Xion."

"Noooooooo…" they whined in unison.

"Or Uncle Lea."

"Kiiiiiiilljooooy."

"Weeeeee blankeeeeee."

"Act like that and I'll tell Ienzo that you get baby food for dinner." The two of them moaned again.

Sora smiled. He needed his friends, sure, but they needed him, too.

* * *

 **Notes:**

 **I just want to thank you all for reading! Shoutout to the following people for leaving comments on either FF or AO3: LanternJawedStudmuffin, Pilinonamae, booping_the_snoot, Zilleniose, WyvernSpirit, allykeegan, Josh Spicer, DreamlessAshes, Kat, Peruse, rynoa29, invaderhorizongreen, princesseru10, Maya Chain 23, superwin, FusionCore, and hnh058513, and anyone else who replies here!**

 **This was my first ever KH fic and I hope it was ok? If I were to write another one shot or short, would you want one? I might take a request or two if the topic interests me!**


	7. Bonus: Aftermath and Stomachaches

_**I know I finished this, but I had massive writers block on my other story (infinity:infinity) until this tumbled out. Enjoy having an update on both of these today! I don't know if I'll come back to this one, but I like this AU enough I might add snippets here and there if I ever get inspired.**_

* * *

"You wanna try taking it off?" Lea asked, gently lifting the edge of Axel's hood. "Seems loose enough to me."

Axel blinked the bright light out of his eyes from the direct exposure, wrinkling his new nose.

"How bad do I look?"

"I don't know. You were the one awake the day Xion took off hers. Want a mirror?"

"I've been dreading this," Axel admitted. "But I'm not going to form right if I don't believe I'll be what I am, right? I wonder if that's why Xion looked different to different people the first time around."

Lea just shrugged.

Axel slowly hobbled over to the dresser mirror, took a deep breath, and peeled the hood off his head.

"Gross," the two said in unison, before Axel demanded. "Come here."

Lea stepped a little closer, getting a good look at Axel's grey, clay-like face. One eyelid was wilting and the features looked a bit melted. Without thinking, Lea reached over and pushed his hands to the sides of Axel's drooping chin, straightening it out.

The flesh turned from almost squishy to a more recognizable human texture under his fingers, and Lea blanched a little. **Gross** was right, but when he pulled away, Axel's chin had straightened out, and a little pinkish color sprouted at the spot. Axel sighed, half annoyed and half appreciative, and closed his eyes, while Lea snuck looks at the mirror, pressing and pushing the last of Axel's features in place like he was sculpting them from clay.

"Your skin's almost solidified, Ax, think fast on wether you want your markings," Lea admonished. For a second, the two blue triangles appeared on Axel's face, before fading off.

"I can always paint them on, it'd be harder to hide them…" Axel sheepishly admitted, as Lea pulled his hands away to look at the doppelgänger in front of him.

"You can stop squeezing your eyes shut."

Axel winced, and opened them. "And you didn't need to make us look exactly the same, you know."

"It's your face too, come on, let's brush you so you start growing hair. Your scalp's so shiny I think I'm gonna go blind."

* * *

Axel reached up and gingerly touched his new hair, his Dusk skin flopping around his fingers. It was thick and wild, and stuck up at all kinds of odd angles. Just like Lea's. Just like **his**.

"You want this all off?" Lea asked, holding up one of the drooping oversized fingers, limp except for where Axel's more human hands were inside them.

Axel just nodded, and Lea carefully tugged the hood opening sagging around his neck. "If there's any resistance, you tell me," he admonished.

Slowly, he peeled, revealing grayish skin, mostly human proportioned like himself.

"Lay on the bed," Lea demanded. "You have a hunchback and I'm going to straighten it out now before that becomes a problem for life."

Axel panicked and flopped on the bed, and Lea pulled the rest of the Dusk skin clean off, cracked his knuckles, and yanked on Axel's back, stretching it out and correcting his spine. It moved easily, making loud popping noises as the bones and muscle stretched and solidified.

"Yeowch!"

"A little pain now will save you a lot later," Lea muttered, noting the skin turn more humanlike as he adjusted his Nobody.

"I know but- goddamnit- you're enjoying this- fuck!- aren't you?"

"Karma's a bitch," Lea grunted, shifting a hip, hearing a cracking sound as Axel bit the pillow to keep himself from screaming. It wasn't actually that painful, surprisingly, but it was… wrong. Human bodies shouldn't do that.

"Xion was bow legged for a day," Axel whined once the shock subsided and he rotated a hip to make sure it worked. "Can't I just let this sort itself out?"

"I'd say yes, but you're done."

"…oh."

Axel pulled himself off the bed, flexing his fingers before running them through his tangle of hair again. When he finally looked up, Lea shoved a box in his hands.

"Ienzo got you some clothes, figured you wanted your own stuff."

Someone rapped lightly on their door. "Everything okay? It's Ven," the voice hastily added, now that Roxas was speaking normally, his own transformation not far behind Axel's.

"Yeah, Lea was just ripping off my skin," Axel laughed out, pulling on a black tank top from the box and hunting for an outfit within it.

"Lunch is ready, but if you're… um, I guess not-human-ing yourself I can tell everyone to wait."

"Yeah, give me like ten."

The footsteps pattered away as Axel pulled a button down shirt over his head, not bothering with the buttons at all, rolling up the sleeves for the "casual but not too casual like I'm trying" look. Lea just snorted, watching his Nobody fumble with everything.

"Fine motor skills not all there yet?" Lea asked.

Axel just glowered.

"You can ask for help, you know."

"Fine," Axel muttered. "Zip my boots and paint on my markings."

Lea squatted at Axel's feet, helping him put on his socks and shoes, then sat next to his… brother? Friend? Other self? on the bed.

"I'm me…" Axel breathed out, looking down at himself in awe. "I'm **me** …"

"You're you," Lea agreed, grinning, before being tackled by his Nobody harder than he expected into a bear trap of a hug.

"Thank you," Axel said hoarsely. "You fed me, gave me shelter. You didn't make me die."

Lea felt his eyes water at that, just a bit, and reached out to accept and reciprocate the gesture.

"I thought you hated being huggy," Lea merely replied.

"I'm making an exception, don't you dare get used to it," Axel grunted.

Lea straightened both of them up. "Come on, let me get your markings on you," he said, swallowing a ball of mucus.

For a second, he could have sword he felt a heart beat under his hand, there, in Axel's chest.

* * *

Roxas nearly tripped on his Dusk feet at the sight of Axel, whole and humanoid, in the dining room, running to him as best he could without bow-legging into a heap on the floor. Only when he'd actually made it into Axel's arms did Xion come and join their hug.

"Roxas, you're probably ready to shed your skin, too, you know," Axel said smiling, petting Roxas on the head and ruffling Xion's hair.

"How'd you go straight from Dusk skin to full blown human?" Xion asked, almost accusatory.

"Lea straightened me out and fixed everything that wasn't even," Axel admitted. "Seems like once you feel like you should, you solidify for good."

"Could you help me, too?" Roxas asked, looking between Lea and Axel.

Lea squatted a little to look Roxas in the eyes. "How am I going to say no to that face?"

"I peeked with a flashlight earlier," Roxas admitted, "and trust me, I wouldn't say yes to it ever."

* * *

"Okay, camera is on, Ventus and Roxas are both in frame. Lea, just try to not block the viewfinder as you adjust him please," Ienzo demanded.

Roxas inhaled deeply. Being the last of the three meant that they didn't know when something like this would ever occur again. And so, he begrudgingly agreed to have the last of his transformation filmed. For **science**. Ventus gave Roxas's shoulder a gentle squeeze to ground him. He looked like Ventus, not Sora, after all, and Roxas wanted to keep his old face.

"Ready, Roxas?" Lea asked gently. "Axel did this hurt?"

Axel stood just out of frame, arms crossed. "You trying to scare him?"

"No, I was going to give him an anesthetic if it did."

"And not me?" Axel asked, eyebrow raised.

"I mean, I thought you wanted to help. I ended up doing it for you."

"Ahem." Ienzo tapped a foot. "You do know we're rolling. Did you want this on record?"

Axel blushed. "It didn't hurt. But it felt like it should. Roxas should be awake, because once you're set, you can't change anything. I tried willing my markings on after lunch but no dice."

"But you have-" Sora started, pointing to his own cheeks, before catching himself, sitting on a chair out of view. "Kairi's eyeshadow?"

"Nah, we got actual face paints, looks a lot more like the real thing. Plus, her makeup cost way more to keep replacing," he added with a smirk.

"Anyway." Roxas was gripping his legs tightly, a towel draped over his Dusk form for when his skin shed and he'd be a buck-naked honest to goodness human… in front of a camera recording for posterity. With his friends all there. **Watching**.

Ventus squeezed his shoulder again. "Let's get your face first, right?"

"R-right," Roxas agreed, reaching up to peel off his hood. Ienzo actually gasped a little.

"Well, you look a hell of a lot better than Axel did," Lea said, beaming at the clay-like form. Axel huffed. "I'm right though," he added, glaring at his double.

"Yeah, whatever," Axel muttered, as Lea quickly pressed and pushed a slightly crooked nose and a cheekbone into place. Roxas looked at himself in a mirror placed out of view of the camera that he could see.

"Is this how I'll look when I'm an old fart?" Roxas asked, touching his scalp.

Lea just laughed, and motioned for Sora to switch places. He'd done Xion's hair, he could take care of Roxas's too.

* * *

"Who's Aurora now?" Ventus said, laughing, looking at a sleeping Roxas, wrapped in a thick blanket and nothing else, blonde spikes and identical face to his own peeking out the top of the burrito.

"Didn't realize that would knock him out," Axel commented, reaching out to lift up the snoring Nobody. "Okay. He can't be sleeping like that by normal means. You put a spell on him."

"Guilty," Lea said with a shrug. "Though he was already nodding off when I started fixing his posture. You didn't sleep while you were a Dusk."

Axel nodded, shifting Roxas's weight on him. "I'm going to bring him home. You going to follow with Sora and Ven?"

Lea nodded. "I'm sure Xion will be excited to see him. We… should probably dress him first."

"I'll do it," Sora offered, grabbing the pile of clothes he had at the ready from their formerly shared wardrobe. "Not like I haven't before."

* * *

Roxas woke up in the grass, outside of Yen Sid's tower. He felt a blanket partially spread on him, and someone's hand gently squeezing his own. Slowly, he blinked the crust out of his eyes, and attempted to sit up, quickly realizing he was in a pile with everyone else.

"Would the person whose name contains A, L and E please remove their leg?"

Lea shifted, rousing. "Sorry Ven and-or Roxas," he muttered.

Roxas scrunched his face for a moment, considering the choice of words. "Lea?"

"Axel's snoring just out of reach of everyone, so yes."

Roxas slowly shifted up. Sora and Riku were awkwardly drooling on each other, while Ventus snoozed curling around Kairi like she was a stuffed animal to hold. Lea was crosswise against both groups, with Xion latched on an arm. Axel was in a sleeping bag, just next to Lea but out of grabbing reach, his own shock of red hair poking out the top.

"What… time is it?"

"Two in the morning."

"You knocked me out."

"You looked like you needed it."

"Sure, but ask next time, yeah?" Roxas demanded. "Axel was right. It didn't hurt. Just felt like it should have."

"Do you want to go inside?"

"Nah. Weather is good and… this is nice. I also don't know if I'm ready to look in a mirror again."

Lea just mussed his hair with a free hand.

"Try to get back on a regular sleeping schedule," Lea admonished. "Just wake me if you need something."

"Oh no, you need to get back on a regular schedule too," Roxas whined. "Half the problems you've had could have been solved by actually sleeping. And I'll put Sleep on you if you don't. Sleepza if I have to. A whole week of snoozing."

"I'm not going to call your bluff." Lea laughed. He knew the kid would do it, too.

"It isn't one." Roxas stared at him. "Cast it again. I'm too wired now to go to sleep on my own."

"Only if you'll do the same for me," Lea countered.

Roxas nodded, and the two of them counted to three, before shooting matching sleeping spells at each other.

* * *

Roxas blinked, shaking out a mouthful of pillow. Did someone move him to his…no.

When he fumbled in complete darkness, he found himself pressed up against a plaster wall, not a stone one. Even if he had been given his own room in the tower (and they were certainly running out of them, so probably not), it wouldn't have been this smooth. Or straight. Nervously, he shuffled to the end of the bed and dangled his feet before inhaling, putting a foot to the floor.

Wooden floorboards.

If he was back in Twilight Town, why was it so dark? At least one street lamp should have been visible from the window, but it wasn't just dark, it was **black**. Roxas fumbled for a lamp switch, surprised to discover it worked. His little bedroom washed aglow in the lamplight.

Xion's blouse still hung from a bedpost.

Roxas blushed, and quickly scooped it up, hanging it in his (their?) closet before willing clothing on himself instead of his pajamas. He was in a dream for sure if he could do that- he wasn't skilled enough in that kind of magic to do that in the rea world. That or…

Roxas opened his window to the gentle breeze. **Sora's** gentle breeze.

He willed the sun to rise.

'Sora?' he asked upwards, before feeling an odd drop in the pit of Sora's stomach, by proxy at least.

"Roxas?" Sora said aloud, distressed. "I… how?"

'I fell asleep?' Roxas provided.

"I… Roxas I'm carrying you right now. Your body, I mean. You're snoring."

'Oh.'

"Can you see it?" Sora asked with a moment of hesitation.

'…no,' Roxas admitted, after trying to reach up and see from Sora's eyes like he could when he was just a heart inside of Sora.

"It's almost noon. Can I try and wake you?"

'Yeah, sure, go a-'

"head…" Roxas finished aloud, started, still in Sora's arms. "You can put me down," he added, sputtering.

"Oh, um, sorry."

Roxas carefully adjusted his footing, accepting a little support from Sora as he climbed the stairwell.

"I didn't mean to do that," Roxas apologized.

"What?" Sora tilted his head like a puppy, confused.

"Invade your heart."

"You think I mind?"

"Guess not," Roxas said. "Though I don't know how I did, given, well, this," he said, gesturing to his own body.

"Lea… when you got pulled out and my inner demons took over… when he calmed me down he said you guys would always be with me. Maybe I should have taken it a bit more literally."

Roxas laughed. "The one time you don't accidentally take it literally and it turns out to be true? Really Sora? Jeez."

Sora brought him to a landing and opened a door.

"The tower added an extra floor for you and Axel. You're directly below my and Riku's rooms, above Xion's and Lea's. Though it sounds like Axel just wants a cot in Lea's room for now."

Of **course** that's how they'd solve the lack of rooms problem. Just invent another floor. Of course. Completely normal behavior for Yen Sid.

Sora pushed open the door, to Roxas's incredibly spartan room- a bed, closet, and dresser with a mirror and a single chair.

"I moved your clothes in here, but you don't have much."

"I can take myself shopping. I'm sure Axel needs his own stuff too."

"Do you… want some time to yourself?" Sora asked quietly.

"I haven't had that in years," Roxas admitted. "It's going to be weird to start now."

"Xion is awake."

Roxas shook a little, and, without warning, latched on to Sora. Sora quietly put his own arms around his- **his and Ventus's** \- Nobody, lowering them to the stone floor.

It was the first time he'd seen Roxas cry. He didn't try and shush him, like he would with Kairi (not to belittle her emotions, he discovered she just calmed to the noise), but he pulled his other in close, rubbing gentle circles on his back as he let Roxas just bawl it out.

It was probably only his overactive imagination, but he could have sworn he felt a heartbeat.

* * *

When Sora fell asleep that night, he dove back into his empty heart. Roxas's bed, which he knew for a fact he'd made when he'd snuffed out the sun was back to a messy heap, and the sun was a strong midday burn. His Twilight Town for sure, and not the real one in perpetual sunset.

Sora flicked a hand, refreshing the sheets, and jumped straight from Roxas's open window and floated over the residential district. Roxas really had gone back in his-

Sora blinked twice to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was.

Two people in Organization coats were sitting on the beach with fishing poles.

Sora rubbed the bridge of his nose and landed with a plunk next to them in the sand. Xion and Axel had a basket of snacks and sandwiches between then, and a cooler filled with ice and a few fish he recognized from the islands. Sora shut the cooler and sat on its lid.

'Not that I mind, but… um. Care to explain?' he asked. Two pairs of eyes flicked up to him.

'I was wondering when more crazy was gonna show.' Axel took another soda from their basket and disintegrated the cap without looking at it.

'Axel do you think you're dreaming?' Sora asked. Of all of them inside his heart, except for Riku and Kairi who really hadn't been whole inside him, Axel really hadn't had a chance to actually look around before he'd been unceremoniously jerked into a body for himself.

'Axel, you're in Sora's heart, you doofus,' Xion said giggling. 'I thought I was dreaming, too, but there's too much here that… well.'

'My mind is playing tricks on me,' Axel whined.

Sora got off the cooler and opened it, pulling out a fish. 'Okay, well, Axel. Ever seen this fish before?'

'No,' he admitted.

'It's called a deep sea chuuli,' Sora explained, watching it flop in his hands before he threw it back in the ice. 'They're good for grilling right over a fire pit. You eat the whole thing, eyeballs and all. Ask Riku when you wake up if you don't believe me.'

Axel looked at him startled, and promptly vanished.

'I think you scared him awake,' Xion said with a giggle.

'How did you get back in here anyway?' Sora asked.

'Dunno. Was dreaming about the beach, when it sort of just started warping. And then I dropped in Roxas's room. I thought I was still just regular dreaming, and then I ran into Axel, which solidified that theory. Until I saw the house on the far side of the train court. Axel and Lea's heart space merged with yours, didn't it?'

Sora nodded, and picked up the fishing pole Axel had dropped, deciding if he should cast out. 'I made the fish, it's not going to be fun fishing for me.'

'What if I helped stock the ocean?' Xion asked. 'Whatever I make won't be predictable to you.'

Sora shrugged, as Xion closed her eyes to concentrate.

Sora suddenly felt an earthquake, gripping the cooler in a panic.

'Sora?' Xion asked, worried.

'You don't... feel it?' Sora asked, wide eyed.

'Feel what?'

And then Sora was blinking stars out of his eyes with a very worried redhead right over him.

"Deep sea chuuli," the voice that was most likely Axel's said in a panic.

"What about them?" Sora asked, trying to calm his explosive heartbeat. "You mean the one I showed you in my heart space?"

Axel blinked. "I really just jumped in there? That wasn't a regular dream?" Slowly, he released his grip on Sora and slumped in his desk chair. "The fuck."

"Xion was still here."

'Is still here. Is Axel okay?'

"Is… still… here…" Sora repeated slowly. "Holy shit."

"I'm going to go wake Lea."

"Not at 3am you aren't," Sora countered. "He's got a bad enough sleep schedule as it is."

Axel breathed slowly, his own panic dying off. "Right. Yeah. Wait… hm."

"What?" Sora asked. "When either of you say ' **hm** ' you have an idea."

"And usually a very stupid one at that," Axel said in agreement. "Go back to bed. If you can dive back in your heart, meet me on the beach."

* * *

'What's all this about?' Sora asked, arms crossed. Axel and Xion were grinning at each other.

"We're going exploring," they said in unison.

Sora shrugged, and Axel led the way up a winding path to his and Lea's heartspace.

'Bet you five hundred mummy my bastard human is sitting at his desk doing maaaaath.'

'I'm not taking that bet,' Xion replied, trudging behind him as he turned the knob with a flourish.

They heard muffled screams coming from upstairs.

'Shit!' Axel yelped, not bothering with the architecture and just rocketed straight upwards to the room above, jetting wood, stone and plaster in all directions.

'I just fixed this not even a week ago,' Sora whined, but followed through the hole.

Sora spotted his shadow, golden eyes and tentacle like wisps of blackness, hissing at Axel from a sofa… and Lea, in the open plan kitchen clutching his hand, with a strong smell of coffee. Sora peeked around the counter and found a pot shattered on the floor, and green light from Lea's free hand quickly repairing burning flesh.

'You dropped a pot of coffee,' Axel deadpanned.

'I heard the door open and freaked out,' Lea countered, looking sadly at the hole in the middle of their open plan second floor. Sora nudged it with his foot, guiltily, and the house began to rebuild itself. **Again**.

Lea put his hands over the shattered pot, and willed it back to a useable vessel.

'I thought I might have been dreaming, but I'm not, am I?' Lea finally said, after a few long moments of silence punctuated only by what Sora was almost positive was a purr coming from his Shadow. Xion sat on the couch to calm the beast down, and Sora realized almost with horror that when she went to scratch it under the chin he felt it too. And the beast grabbed on Xion and started nuzzling her, no less. There went any shred of decency he had.

'Warm,' croaked his Shadow. 'No heart.'

'You don't need to rub it in,' Xion said, giggling, as she got it to flop on the couch.

Lea set the pot down and walked over to Axel and Sora. ' **You didn't realize you were in Sora's heart**?' Axel asked him, incredulously.

'I've had dreams about Sora's shadow every night since we split,' Lea said, honestly, pulling up a chair. 'Maybe they weren't dreams either.'

'Axel nice,' Sora's shadow whined between purrs. 'Xion pretty.'

Sora and Xion both blushed. Axel coughed loudly. 'So you've just been in here hanging out with a **Heartless** for the past couple of nights and not even the slightest bit worried?'

Lea shrugged. 'He behaves himself. He's only tried to chew on the coffee table once. And remember, I thought I was just reliving helping Sora. Guess that's not totally wrong though, huh?' Lea added, addressing the shadow, who bounded over for scritches.

Sora was dumbstruck watching it. **Him**.

'Awwww, he's like a puppy,' Axel said, kneeling to let the shadow sniff him. Axel arched an eyebrow and looked past the shadow to its creator. 'You gonna say hi to him, Sora?'

Sora blushed and stepped forward. He'd never actually seen his shadow before like this- he sort of just became the thing when he was upset or severely injured. He didn't even consider the possibility the two of them were even separate.

'Hey.'

'Hey,' it repeated, not in its rasp but in a perfectly matching mock of Sora's normal speaking voice. If it wasn't creepy enough already.

'You okay?'

'You okay?'

'Stop copying me!' Sora replied, frustrated, throwing up his hands.

The shadow just jumped in his arms. 'You scared of me. Try be nice to you,' it answered in its own croak.

Sora reached out and smoothed down its dark tentacle wisps of hair. The shadow started purring and Sora himself felt like someone was ruffling his own hair.

In a way, that was what was happening.

'How's that?' Sora asked him.

'Good.'

'Thank you for not attacking anyone,' Sora said after a quiet few minutes, as Lea went back to the kitchen to conjure up drinks and snacks.

'Axel feed. Don't bite hand that feed.'

'You've been… feeding my Shadow?' Sora asked, looking up at Lea from his spot on the floor.

Lea knelt down and nodded, materializing a small, normal shadow Heartless in his hands, holding out the squealing, blinking creature. Sora's Heartless lunged, snapping the Heartless's neck in a quick motion and shredding it, inhaling chunks at a time.

Sora, Axel, and Xion winced.

'I know that shadow you generated is just something from your mind but…' Axel started, voicing how they all felt.

'Well, it works as well as the real thing,' Lea said with a shrug.

'Not real, still tasty,' Sora's shadow said with a sharp-toothed grin, wisps of dark smoke wafting out of his mouth and dripping in long loops onto the floor. 'Axel try ice cream first. Too cold.'

'Wipe up after you eat,' Lea demanded. The shadow swallowed the Heartless's remaining foot and wiped his mouth with a forearm.

'More?'

'You'll turn into a balloon, silly,' Lea said, kneeling, mussing its hair, before walking to his desk on the far side of the room. He generated a fresh whiteboard and started scribbling.

'Sora, how far apart are our bedrooms? And how far is Xion's?'

Sora frowned. 'How am I supposed to know?'

'If you've counted the stair steps I can make a rough estimate by multiplying-'

'Lea, just wake up and do it yourself,' Axel said, sighing. 'Why does it matter how far apart our rooms are, anyway?'

'Well, look at how clear the connection is. I wonder how far we could be from each other and it still works?'

'If I'm awake, I can still hear anyone who's asleep inside me,' Sora offered, scratching his shadow under his chin, smiling at it. That's what he was in purest form, he supposed. A **puppy**. 'I don't think they can take over anymore though. Roxas couldn't even see out of my eyes.'

'Don't you see though?' Lea asked, spinning in his desk chair to face them. 'We have a tool the other side doesn't have. We're in here having s conversation. Nobody outside can hear this. There's no way to eavesdrop. We can feed Sora information while he's awake!' Lea was excited now, scribbling like wild on a board bobbing in front of him. 'And maybe… since we've tamed your shadow a bit we can try and coax him-'

'Lea!' Axel barked, folding his arms across his chest. 'Chill. Jeez. Roxas and I haven't even existed as our own people for a week and you haven't even asked Sora his opinion on all this.'

Lea slumped, a bit guilty. 'Sorry…'

'Take your science a bit slow, fireball,' Axel demanded, putting a hand on Lea's shoulder.

'Lea is right,' Sora cut in. 'The other side can all jump through dark portals and do all kinds of magic we can't. I'm open to trying anything.' He paused a minute as his shadow made grabby hands at his chest. ' **Almost** anything.'

And that was how Sora found himself listening to the pair of red headed twins bickering over what kinds of experiments to try, until he, Xion, and his shadow curled up on their giant couch, for slumber within slumber.

* * *

Sora woke up with a start, ravenous. When was the last time he ever woke that hungry? Coming from that memory pod?

And then he saw his reflection in the mirror.

"Friend," he said aloud, gurgling out the sound in a pained, but not painful, rasp. "I know Lea said we should let you out sometime but I don't think this is what he meant."

Sora really needed a separate name for his shadow. Solid gold glowing eyes blinked back at him in the mirror, and wisps of darkness oozed off his form.

His body bounded towards the door before Sora realized he wasn't controlling it.

"Oh, come on," he whined.

"Hungry," his mouth said aloud for him.

"Fine, fine, I'll get us breakfast. But you need to calm down."

His shadow skidded to a halt on the stairwell, and Sora almost fell straight down the central column of air in the tower.

Roxas's door shot open; he stumbled out in a panic.

"Fuck!" he cried.

Sora got off his haunches and put up his hands defensively. "It's okay, Roxas, I'm in control."

Roxas blinked twice and considered. "Oh. Okay."

"That's it?"

"I mean, it doesn't even register on the weird scale. I've seen you before. Hell, you've given me a good sock or two. Didn't realize you could talk, though."

"No I mean… it's real, normal, Sora. Lea's been trying to tame my shadow the past couple of nights and-" Sora stopped, his stomach growling loud enough to reverberate against the stone walls. "Ugh. My brain hurts and I need food."

Roxas reached out and grabbed Sora's arm, pulling him down to the dining room. "Well, you're not getting my heart. Don't have one to give. Will eggs be okay?"

* * *

Sora was trying very very hard to keep his Heartless from fully taking over and just putting his whole face in the plate, as much as their collective hunger was whining otherwise.

"The fuck?" Riku asked, as he slipped into his seat at the table. Yen Sid offered up a glare that could burn a hole in the wall.

"Blame Lea."

"Blame Axel."

Sora recoiled. He'd said both things at once- both he and his Shadow having slightly different ideas about who was to blame.

"Aros, when we said you should come out, we meant with Sora's permission," Lea said sternly.

"My body," Sora's Shadow grunted as Sora spent all his energy just trying to use his arms to cut his bacon into smaller pieces before he knew he'd lose the fight.

"Aros?" Sora asked, shoving a fork full of egg and bacon in his mouth to pacify his other.

"Well, I wasn't going to just keep calling him 'Shadow' or 'Heartless'."

"It's Sora **backwards** ," Sora groaned. "Can't you have at least a little imagin- Aros, cool it, I'm eating."

His shoulders sagged.

"As funny as this is to watch," Roxas said, "it can't be good for either of them."

"Aros, let Sora eat breakfast in peace. Ask permission before using his body."

"Is mine," Aros whined again.

Axel stood up and walked around the table, whispering something to Roxas, who in turn got up and yanked up Sora by the scruff of his neck.

"I'm also Sora," Roxas said, gruffly, as if he was trying to repeat back whatever Axel had suggested, rather than something he came up with on his own. "Did I ever take over without his permission?"

"…no, Nobody half waited."

"I **waited** ," Roxas said, side eyeing at Axel, as if he were making sure he was doing it right. "Axel waited for Lea's permission too."

Sora felt the pangs of hunger recede, and realized he wasn't fighting for control anymore. He shifted from the squat on his haunches to actually sitting on his chair the right way. He looked down at his arms, and watched as the wisps of darkness fade off, leaving behind freckled skin.

With a yelp, he fled the table before he completely reverted; the last thing he needed was the rest of the table seeing him in just his boxers from the night before.

* * *

Lea's first task for Sora and Aros was getting the two to cooperate.

"Okay, Sora, give him permission to come out."

Sora sighed. For the rest of the people in his heart, he didn't need to give them explicit permission like this. They just tagged each other in and out as needed. But Lea was right. Aros could understand them, but he was much more a child and needed to be treated like one.

"Aros, you can come out. For an hour."

Before Sora had much time to process, he shifted to haunches and felt his mouth break into a grin.

Lea knelt down and began messing with his hair.

"I'm not… in my heart," Sora mused.

Lea pulled back his hand like it had been bit. "Er, sorry Sora."

"Don't stop," Aros whined.

Sora rolled his eyes. "He wants pets, I guess. You can indulge him." Sora relaxed a little, and tried to see if he could dive in his heart. No dice. Someone needed to be in control, and Aros wasn't enough of a person on his own, it seemed. So, Sora relegated himself to try and go boneless, let Aros move them. Lea sicced him on some training targets, but Aros just sat and stretched out like a disinterested cat. It made sense, the targets weren't alive.

"Sora, I'm going to bring you two somewhere where Aros can let loose. I want you to let him fight."

"Are you nuts?" Sora asked, as Lea hefted him up.

"Yes," Lea deadpanned, willing open a corridor of darkness. It opened to Radiant Garden, and as soon as they were through, Aros began squirming like crazy.

"Lea what in the infinite worlds are you-" Ienzo started, as Aros wrestled himself out of Lea's grip. Sora didn't have enough time to-

Aros bounded straight past Ienzo and skittered on all fours down the hall.

"You said you had a pest problem," Lea shouted behind him as he fled to follow Aros.

* * *

Sora forgot about the weird blue chasm under the castle, but Aros beelined for it so fast he didn't have much time to think. Immediately, his shadow lunged, biting a small Shadow in the neck and snapping it, whipping his own neck back and forth like a dog with a toy.

"Aroth!" Sora said, mouth full, spitting out the tiny Heartless. It tasted like ink and Sora almost heaved. The little heartless's heart floated up to the sky as the thing fizzled.

"Aros, that was a **person**!"

"Yes?" his own voice asked back. "So?"

"If you eat a Heartless that was a person… does that revive them?" Sora asked the air, as a small swarm of them began to circle. Lea finally jogged down to the ravine, coughing and out of breath.

"Let… - **hack** -," Lea started, before pausing to hack up a little blood. "Heartless that eat Heartless free them. It's like killing them with a Keyblade," he added once he got his voice back, casting Cure on his throat. "Next time I tell you **before** we go to a nest," he added, breathlessly, as he slumped on a rock.

"How hungry are you, Aros?" Sora asked himself quietly, though the growling from his stomach already gave him an answer.

" **Always**. Always hungry," Aros growled low, before Sora let himself tear the horde to shreds.

* * *

Sora awoke, as himself and himself alone back in his bed.

His mouth tasted like ink.

* * *

"Don't you want dinner, Sora?" Xion asked, worriedly, as he poked around his plate.

"I'm fine."

"You really should eat."

"I **did**."

"Junk food isn't dinner," Riku said with a small smile.

"Does 500 or so Heartless count as junk food?" Sora asked bitterly. "I have a stomachache. The next time I wake up with Donald and Goofy over me shaking me up after Aros takes over I'm asking for an antacid."

Lea looked extremely guilty. "I didn't think he'd try and eat them all! You'd think he'd stop after a while."

"See, normally he'd just be in control until I gained consciousness," Sora muttered, poking his plate with a fork. "You could have stepped in and torched them at any time, you know."

"Why didn't you just take control?" Riku asked. "How does it work with him?"

"Oh, I could. He's not like when Ven or Xion or Roxas used my body. But I can't fight off hundreds of Heartless alone! My mana doesn't last long enough for group magic and I'm not fast enough. And with someone sitting there with a bucket of popcorn not doing anything…" Sora added, glaring at Lea.

"You know I would have stepped in if there were a problem."

"Just because there **wasn't** one doesn't mean I wasn't…" Sora replied quietly. "I'm going to my room."

Yen Sid frowned as Sora deposited his napkin on the table and got up.

When the dining room door closed, Axel slid his own chair out. "Well, one of us has a heart, and one of us is going to go apologize to Sora."

He slammed the door behind him, almost breaking the frame as he left.

* * *

"Sora, I'm coming in unless you tell me no." Axel crossed his arms staring at Sora's bedroom door.

Silence. Nervously, Axel gripped the handle and turned. The door let him in.

Aros's golden eyes glared back.

"Hey… heeey." Axel put his hands up non-threateningly, and slowly entered the room. "Can I talk to Sora, buddy? Aros?" Aros merely cocked his head. "God, I can't believe that name stuck," Axel added under his breath.

When Aros made no moves to attack or speak, Axel slowly waded forward, reached out, and began petting the top of his head. Aros made a retching noise, and threw up a pool of ink all over the floor. A tiny new Shadow congealed out of it, and Axel panicked.

"I can take care of the Shadows, but I need a goddamn Keyblade to get rid of that source… fucking hell Lea…"

"Tummy hurts." Axel looked at Aros, clutching his stomach.

"Ugh. Trust me, I've been there. Heartless taste just as bad going down as they do coming up."

Aros looked at him for a moment, before Axel caught a hint of blue in one eye.

"Ugh, what happened?" Sora asked, before throwing up another pool of Heartless.

"You're making a Heartless nest," Axel replied.

Aros stiffened.

"Get out of my room," Sora rasped.

"Whoa, hey, it's Axel. I'm just trying to help. If you still want me out, I'll go."

Aros blinked twice, wisps of blackness dripping from his mouth.

"He ask come in, I let him."

"I should have said no."

Axel threw up his hands. "Okay I'm out. But I am sending you Roxas, Xion, Kairi or Riku to take care of this," he added, sweeping a hand to the pool on the floor, "before we have a problem."

"No-not now- I meant I should have told Lea I didn't want to run any experiments. Not this soon. I should have met with Aros in my heart first. Get to know him. I may have had him here a while but dealing with him is… different."

"Can you turn back?"

"Not… like…" Sora started, in Aros's rasp, before throwing up yet another pool of darkness. "Not when I feel this sick. Did you… I think I heard you say you **ate heartless before**."

It wasn't phrased as a question but Axel took it anyway.

"Ansem… Xehanort-Ansem I mean, not the King of Radiant Garden… when Isa and I were ripped apart… he threw our Nobodies in that ravine. We woke up there, feral. We were down there a whole week, eating nothing but Heartless and slowly turning from monstrosities to… well to what you see. Ansem was testing us. Anything that crawled out, that was good enough for him. I was throwing up those pools for three days once I clawed my way back up.

Axel sighed, rubbing slow circles on Aros-Sora's back. "Lea sees himself in you. But where I stay the hell away from that place unless I don't have a choice… he's fascinated by it. In a way, it destroyed and saved his life. He absolutely would have stepped in if you were in danger, physically, yes. But I think he hates that place so much he needs to see someone conquer it. And that should be him, not you."

"I'll go back," Sora and Aros said in a creepy chorus, before Sora elaborated. "But not like this. And he's coming with me. Keyblade and- ugh."

Another pool formed on the floor.

"Sora, you need to let people help themselves sometimes. I'll give Lea a good talking to. Right now, we need a Keyblade wielder to keep this mess in check. And that ain't me."

"Anyone but Riku," Sora muttered. "Aros doesn't like him much."

"He try kill me too much," Aros added. "Why Sora trust… I don't know."

"That was in the past, bud. You need to let it go," Axel said, mussing up Aros's wisps of hair. "I'll see if I can whip up something that makes you puke it all out at once. A little light magic should probably do the trick but I don't want to hurt you in the process."

"You're the better mage," Sora grumbled, as another Shadow formed out of the floor. Axel stepped on it, twisting it under his boot until it dematerialized.

* * *

"I've heard of the floor is lava but this is stupid," Roxas muttered, as he cast light magic on the floor, erasing the pools and destroying the fresh Heartless. None of them released a heart upon blowing up, but these were Heartless born of the darkness itself, and not a person. It made Sora feel marginally better about the situation, but only just.

Axel came back in with Xion, hefted Aros-Sora on a shoulder, and opened a dark corridor out to the tower courtyard. Kairi and Riku had keyblades at the ready, and Xion carried a flask overflowing with golden yellow liquid.

"As much as you can," Axel admonished, once he'd set Sora down and took the flask from Xion. "Try to drink it all if possible."

Aros grinned and yanked the vessel from Axel, greedily gulping it down, before frowning, retching, and ejecting a pool the size of a Gummi Ship.

And then Sora passed out.

* * *

Two sets of green eyes peered nervously at him. Sora flexed his fingers, feeling how solid they were.

His stomach growled.

One of the pair of Lea-Axels nudged the other.

"A-po-lo-gize."

Sora rubbed the crust out of his eyes, before realizing that neither of them had face markings.

So, he reached up and put his hand to the one that spoke's neck.

"Look, haven't you done enough?" Sora whined. "I forgive you, just don't do it again," he muttered.

"But… what? I'm not Lea."

"Heart… beat… doesn't… lie" Sora grumbled into his pillow, before the other shoved his hand in his face.

"And check mine."

Sora reached out, expecting no pulse on the second doppelgänger… only to find him with a heartbeat, too.

"Axel grew a heart of his own," Lea said, smiling gently. "So that makes one of us, I guess."

"Maybe I should suffer for people more often," Sora groaned.

"Oh, no you don't," they said in unison, Axel glaring at Lea.

"Having a heart sucks anyway," Axel added.

"I think Roxas is trying to grow one too," Sora added quietly. "I felt it… was it yesterday? Today was insane…"

"Go back to bed, kid," Axel admonished.

Sora nodded. "If you… want to go back to your house in my heart, go ahead. Aros likes you."

"I should check on him and apologize anyway," Lea replied, embarrassed.

"What for? You didn't do anything to him. If anything, flinging him into a horde to eat was exactly what he wanted. He's calmed down a lot."

"Even when you fuck up, you end up doing the right thing, don't you?" Axel said, grinning at his other.

Lea looked down at Sora, already passed out, then back to Roxas standing in the doorway, just out of view.

"Do that again, Lea, and I'll clobber you," Roxas hissed low. "And I won't hold back. I care about Axel, not you."

"Good, kick my ass," Lea said, strolling out of Sora's room. "Lords above know I deserve it."

Lea clapped a hand around Roxas's neck as he passed. "Well whatdya know."

"What?" Roxas muttered, as Axel passed him too.

"Put two fingers on your wrist, Rox."

Roxas did so, staring back into the soft glow coming from Sora's night light.

"Huh." Roxas's mouth curled into a smile, feeling s slow and steady thump.

"I wonder if Ven and I can trick people like Axel and Lea can…"


End file.
